Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor proved his worth for Togo again as his dramatic winner got the Sparrow Hawks on their way in 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.

It was one of many subplots around the continent in the 26 qualifying games played.

Group A

Adebayor, 31, had initially refused to team up with the Sparrow Hawks, which led to his widely-reported sacking from the squad by Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet.

But after watching Togo lose a friendly in Accra last week, the team contrived to get him back. And it paid off. He scored three minutes from time to earn Togo a come-from-behind 2-1 Group A victory over Liberia in Lome.  

Tunisia demolished Djibouti 8-1 at home in Radès. The Group A opener means the Carthage Eagles go top with Togo behind. 

Group B

Angola lapped up the celebrations as they smashed Central African Republic 4-0 while Congo battled to beat Madagascar 2-1.  

Group C

Mali host and beat South Sudan 2-1 in Bamako, with the Eagles eying a sixth consecutive finals appearance after earning a first round exit to a drawing of lots with Guinea at the latest tournament in Equatorial Guinea.

National coach Alain Giresse, who has resumed his second spell at the helm of Mali, had to review his plans in the absence of several key players due to injuries, including Molla Wagué, Tongo Hamed Doumbia, Sigamary Diarra, Fousseyni Diawara, Mustapha Yatabaré, Abdoulaye Diaby and Cheick Tidiane Diabaté.

South Sudan are yet to taste victory since their first official outing in July 2012.

Equatorial Guinea came back for a 1-1 draw with Benin with captain Emilio Nsue's equalizer.

Group D

Uganda defeated Botswana 2-0 in their opening match of Group D at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala on Saturday.  

A goal each in the second half from Geoffrey Massa and Brian Umony were enough to give Uganda the victory after having dominated the entire match.  Uganda came into this match as favourites following their decent home record, having won seven out of seven fixtures.

Burkina Faso, missing key men such as UAE-based Jonathan Pitroipa and AS Monaco striker, Alain Traoré, beat Comoros 2-0 at the Ouagadougou Stadium and are now joint top with Uganda. Goals came from Aristide Bance, and Jonathan Zongo.

Group E

Kenya secured a crucial point following a 1-1 draw away to Congo-Brazzaville.

The result means all four teams in Group E — Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Zambia — have one point each after the opening round but Kenya sit top of the group due to the away goal. 

The match between Zambia and Guinea Bissau ended goalless.

Group F

Cape Verde got their groove on with a 7-1 demolition of Sao Tome and Principe but it was not a feast of goals for Morocco, who could just manage a 1-0 win against Libya.

Omar El-Kaddouri got the only goal of the game in the 51st minute, sliding in at the far post to turn home a cross.

Group G

The Super Eagles, three-time African champions, started their quest to return to the tournament with a 2-0 win over Chad in Kaduna on Saturday.

Nigeria coach, Stephen Keshi handed debuts to Anderson Esiti and Kingsley Madu while usual suspects, Vincent Enyeama, Ogenyi Onazi, Ahmed Musa and Kenneth Omeruo all got starting berths.

But the two goals came in the second half within a minute of each other, with strikes from Gbolohan Salami and Odion Ighalo (penalty). 

However on Sunday, record seven-time champions Egypt netted three times within 10 minutes to defeat Tanzania 3-0 in Borg El-Arab west of Alexandria and replace Nigeria as group leaders on goal difference.

Ramy Rabiea, Bassem Morsi and Mohamed Salah, the Chelsea striker on loan to Fiorentina, scored for a Pharaohs team desperate to avoid missing a fourth consecutive Cup of Nations finals.

Group H

Rwanda started well with a 1–0 win away in Mozambique, with striker Ernest Sugira heading them ahead moments after the game started.

Coach Johnny McKinstry said, “The opportunity came very early on. From that point [after the goal], we had about 92 minutes of the game still to go including three possible minutes of stoppage time, 92 minutes of defending and keeping Mozambique out was always going to be tough on us but the boys did extremely well.”

Rwanda is second in Group H following Ghana’s 7-1 resounding win over Mauritius at the Accra Sports Stadium. Braces for Jordan Ayew and Asamoah Gyan were the highlights, but it could have been more as the 2015 Afcon finalists coasted to the win.

Mauritius, led by three coaches coaches on the day, conceded they were no match for the Black Stars. “The strength of the Ghanaian team and the experience of their players made the difference today,” Akbra Patel, one of the three coaches said.

Group I

Sudan beat Sierra Leone 1-0 but the scores of the other two teams don't count. Defending African champion Ivory Coast drew 0-0 with Gabon at home in a friendly. Gabon, an automatic qualifier as the 2017 African Cup host, has still been included in the qualifying competition as the fourth team in this group but its games won't count toward the group standings.

Group J

In extremely wet conditions, Ethiopia came from behind to beat Lesotho 2-1. Thousands of fans were forced to abandon the stands at the newly-built 60,000-seat stadium in the northern city of Bahir Dar.

El Arbi Soudani scored a goal in each half to help Algeria to a 4-0 win over the Seychelles at Blida’s Stade Mustapha Tchaker on Saturday evening.

Eager to get their 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign off to a positive start following their disappointing exit from this year's showpiece, head coach Christian Gourcuff named his strongest available line-up.

Group K

Sadio Mané (below pictured) found the net as Senegal beat Burundi 3-1 at the Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor in Dakar.

Moussa Konaté gave Senegal the lead with a penalty on the quarter-hour mark, but Fiston Abdul Razak levelled matters on 59 minutes. Stoke striker Mame Biram Diouf restored Senegal’s lead four minutes later, with Mané wrapping up the win in the first minute of injury time.

Group L

The most stunning result so far was recorded in Morocco, where Guinea play their home games due to the continuing fears of Ebola contagion back home.

Swaziland stunned Guinea 2-1 in Casablanca with captain Tony Tsabedze getting both goals for a side ranked 117 places below opponents who reached the 2015 quarter-finals in Equatorial Guinea.

The loss was a second straight one for new coach Luis Fernandez, who replaced French compatriot Michel Dussuyer as coach. It was a completely unexpected result in a match moved from Conakry to the Stade Mohammed V in the Moroccan commercial capital because of Ebola epidemic fears.

Swaziland had never won an away Cup of Nations qualifier in 20 previous attempts stretching back to the 1986 eliminators.

But they got precious recent practice in the Cosafa Cup southern Africa championship, defeating Tanzania and Lesotho and drawing with Madagascar.

Saturday saw Khama Billiat’s stunning 82nd minute goal getting Zimbabwe a 2-1 win over their hosts, Malawi, in their Group L matchup in Blantyre.

The win put Zimbabwe second in the group on three points whereas Swaziland are top after the north African heroics. Despite going into the game amid financial problems and enduring a bus break-down on Friday afternoon while travelling to Blantyre, it was the cash-strapped Warriors who lived up to their name.

Group M

At the Moses Mabhida Stadium, it was a goalles draw as Gambia parked the bus against South Africa (snapshot pictured above). Gambia were gutsy, but for the hosts, it was a case of missed chances. 

Cameroon needed a last-minute winner from Vincent Aboubakar to edge Mauritania 1-0. The Porto forward scored in the final minute in Yaounde after the Indomitable Lions dominated throughout.

Four-time African champions Cameroon lead by two points from South Africa and Gambia, who drew 0-0 on Saturday in Durban.

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Afcon 2017 qualifying results

Friday, June 12
Tunisia 8-1 Djibouti
Morocco 1-0 Libya
Guinea 1-2 Swaziland 

Saturday, June 13
Angola 4-0 Central African Republic
Mali 2-0 South Sudan
Uganda 2-0 Botswana
Burkina Faso 2-0 Comoros
Zambia 0-0 Guinea-Bissau
Cape Verde 7-1 Sao Tome and Principe
Nigeria 2-0 Chad
Algeria 4-0 Seychelles
Senegal 3-1 Burundi
Malawi 1-2 Zimbabwe
South Africa 0-0 Gambia

Sunday. June 14
Egypt 3-0 Tanzania
Sudan 1-0 Sierra Leone
Ghana 7-1 Mauritius
Togo 2-1 Liberia
Equatorial Guinea 1-1 Benin
Niger 1-0 Namibia
Congo 1-1 Kenya
DR Congo 2-1 Madagascar
Cameroon 1-0 Mauritania 1 : 0
Ethiopia 2-1 Lesotho
Mozambique 0-1 Rwanda

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