The Japan Times - Football: African 2026 World Cup qualifying facts and figures

Chart-topper Salah

Prolific Liverpool scorer Mohamed Salah has also netted regularly in World Cup qualifying, topping the charts with six goals for likely qualifiers Egypt.

The 32-year-old began with a bang, netting four times in a 6-0 matchday one rout of minnows Djibouti in Cairo. He also netted in away matches against Guinea-Bissau and Ethiopia.

Wolfsburg striker Mohamed Amoura bagged a matchday six hat-trick for Algeria in a 5-1 hammering of Mozambique in Tizi Ouzou and shares second place on five goals with five others.

Shocks galore

Group C consists of South Africa, Rwanda, Benin, Nigeria, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and it has produced the most shocks so far.

Minnows Lesotho forced a draw in Nigeria, hosts Rwanda adapted much better to a rain-saturated pitch to beat South Africa, and middleweights Benin came from behind to defeat Nigeria.

There was another unexpected result in the section this week when Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Tawanda Chirewa scored in added time to snatch a 1-1 draw for Zimbabwe in Nigeria.

Popular scorelines

A 1-0 scoreline was the most common during the first six rounds with 33 of the 151 matches settled by a solitary goal.

Sharing second place were 2-1 and 2-0 results with 21 of each. Draws completed the five most frequent scorelines with 19 1-1 stalemates and 15 0-0 deadlocks.

One-sided scorelines were rare with just three 5-0 results and two 6-0 and 5-1 scorelines. The most lopsided outcome was African champions Ivory Coast trouncing the Seychelles 9-0.

Successful seeds

Egypt, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Tunisia have justified being seeded first in groups by leading them with four matchdays remaining. There will be two in September and two in October.

Two more, Cameroon, whose eight World Cup appearances is an African record, and Senegal both occupy second places, one point behind Cape Verde and Democratic Republic of Congo respectively.

The other two first seeds, Mali and Nigeria, lie fourth. Both are six points behind the leaders of their groups, Ghana and South Africa.

Perfect Morocco

Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco are the only country among the 52 currently involved boasting a perfect record after five victories.

The Atlas Lions twice beat Tanzania 2-0 in Group E, Zambia 2-1, Congo Brazzaville 6-0 and Niger 2-1. It assisted Morocco that they hosted away fixtures against the Congolese and Nigeriens.

Congo did not explain why they ceded home advantage. Niger did so because they do not have a FIFA-approved stadium.

H.Takahashi--JT