African sides have learned who they will face after the 2018 World Cup qualifying draw was held Saturday in St Petersburg, Russia. Fifty-three African countries were in the draw, with only Zimbabwe missing following their expulsion by FIFA for failing to pay a former coach. Africa has been allocated five spots in the finals, which will be played in Russia from 14 June to 15 July. There will be three rounds of qualifying for the African sides. Round one features the lowest 26 ranked countries on the continent in FIFA's July rankings. The winners of those ties advance to round two where they will join the remaining 27 highest-ranked teams. In the final round, five groups of four teams will meet both home and away and the winner of each group will qualify for Russia 2018. First round: Thirteen two-legged ties, played home and away, between 5-13 October 2015: Somalia x Niger South Sudan x Mauritania Gambia x Namibia Sao Tome e Principe x Ethiopia Chad x Sierra Leone Comoros x Lesotho Djibouti x Swaziland Eritrea x Botswana Seychelles x Burundi Liberia x Guinea Bissau Mauritius x Kenya Tanzania x Malawi Central African Republic x Madagascar Second Round: The winners of the first round, plus 27 highest-ranked teams in Africa. All 40 teams paired into 20 ties, play home and away, between 9-17 November 2015: Somalia/Niger x Cameroon South Sudan/Mauritania x Tunisia Gambia/Namibia v Guinea Sao Tome e Principe/ Ethiopia x Congo Brazzaville Chad/Sierra Leone x Egypt Comoros/Lesotho x Ghana Djibouti/Swaziland x Nigeria Eritrea/Botswana x Mali Seychelles/Burundi x DR Congo Liberia/Guinea Bissau x Ivory Coast Central African Republic/Madagascar x Senegal Mauritius/Kenya x Cape Verde Islands Tanzania/Malawi x Algeria Sudan x Zambia Libya x Rwanda Morocco x Equatorial Guinea Mozambique x Gabon Benin x Burkina Faso Togo x Uganda Angola x South Africa Third round: Twenty winners of the second round will form five groups of four teams who will meet both home and away. Matches are to be played between 3 October 2016 and 14 November 2017. The five group winners qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. After fulfilling his duties as a draw assistant at Saturday's preliminary draw, Cameroonian goal scoring legend Samuel Eto'o gave FIFA.com his view on what to expect in the African zone, where the first round of the qualifying competition begins on 5 October. “The gap between the strongest teams and the less-fancied ones has closed a lot. In fact, there's hardly a gap to speak of anymore,” said Eto'o. “I remember going into matches 10 or 15 years ago thinking: ‘There's such a big difference between us that we're bound to win'. But these days you're thinking: ‘This team is going to make life hard for us', which is great for Africa as a whole.”
