Pathé Mboup needed one touch to put his name on the scoresheet on his Senegal debut. By the time he supplied the fourth goal in Dakar, Thursday’s qualifier against Sudan looked comfortable. At half-time it had been anything but. Sudan had answered Nicolas Jackson’s opener and the teams went in level, leaving Senegal to earn the three points all over again after the interval.
Boulaye Dia restored the lead and Ibrahim Mbaye widened it before Mboup’s late finish sealed a 4–1 win. For Sudan, Mohamed Abuaagla’s first-half equaliser offered a reminder that the next meeting need not follow the pattern of the final half-hour in Dakar. For Senegal, the reward was seven points from three games in Group J. Mozambique sat three points behind with a game still in hand.
Elsewhere, a single goal separated Côte d’Ivoire and The Gambia in Bouaké. Malick Yalcouyé and Elye Wahi put the hosts two up, but Musa Barrow scored before the break to give the visitors a way back. Neither side added to the score after half-time. The 2–1 result gave Côte d’Ivoire nine points from nine and left The Gambia on six after their first defeat of the campaign.
That result also mattered to supporters following Ghana. A 1–0 win against Somalia earlier in the day gave Ghana their first three points after two defeats. With The Gambia losing, the distance between the sides stood at one win. Three games into a qualifying campaign, a result in another stadium can make the difference between a promising recovery and an afternoon spent merely keeping pace.
In Douala, Cameroon did their scoring early. Saidou Alioum found the net in the 16th minute and Bil Nsongo added the second before the half-hour. Namibia could find no response. Cameroon’s 2–0 win took them to seven points in Group G, although Comoros, four points behind at that stage, had played one fewer match. A table read midway through a matchday can give a misleading impression of how much room a leader actually has.
Benin also reached seven points, beating Central African Republic 4–1 in Abidjan. Louis Mafouta had brought the teams level after Hassane Imourane’s opener, but Rodolfo Aloko restored Benin’s advantage and Aiyegun Tosin scored twice. Like Sudan, Central African Republic left with a heavy defeat after having drawn level during the game. Both have an early opportunity to respond in Monday’s return fixtures. For the teams chasing places in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, the quick turnaround leaves little time to celebrate a win or dwell on a bad half.
