The first set of qualifying matches in the second round of CAF’s qualifying tournament heavily favored home sides on Friday and Saturday. It didn’t hurt that most of the home sides were Africa’s traditional powers, but there was one match in particular where homefield advantage let an inferior team capture a comfortable win.
CAF World Cup 2014 Qualifying: Ghana, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire Among Winners
Zambia, the defending Africa Cup of Nations champions, started their qualifying campaign with an extremely difficult away match against Sudan. Even though Sudan don't have players who play in top leagues, they're a very underrated side and tough to beat at home. Zambia had all of their top players, but Sudan pulled out a 2-0 win, putting Zambia in an early can't lose situation against Ghana.
Ghana posted the biggest result of qualifying so far, hanging an unsurprising 7-0 score on Lesotho. The Black Stars kept all of their experienced strikers off their roster, but didn’t need them. Jordan Ayew and Dominic Adiyah both scored twice.
Tunisia, Senegal, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Algeria and Bob Bradley's Egypt all pulled off home wins as well. Burkina Faso, who should be able to get out of their group, disappointed in a 0-0 home draw against Congo. Morocco, a solid dark horse to get out of their group with Cote d'Ivoire, got off to a bad start with a 1-1 draw away to Gambia.
Scores
Ghana 7 - 0 Lesotho
Egypt 2 - 0 Mozambique
Kenya 0 - 0 Malawi
Central African Republic 2 - 0 Botswana
Cameroon 1 - 0 Congo-DR
Sierra Leone 2 - 1 Cape Verde Islands
Gambia 1 - 1 Morocco
Sudan 2 - 0 Zambia
Côte d'Ivoire 2 - 0 Tanzania
Tunisia 3 - 1 Equatorial Guinea
Senegal 3 - 1 Liberia
Burkina Faso 0 - 0 Congo
Algeria 4 - 0 Rwanda
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