Two goals to the good and cruising, Sierra Leone somehow contrived to lose.
Their collapse against Zimbabwe was the sharpest twist on the opening weekend of the AFCON 2027 qualifiers. This is the campaign that decides who joins co-hosts Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania at next year’s finals.
Matchday one ran from Thursday to Saturday. Forty-eight nations were split into twelve groups of four. CAF’s official website confirms the finals run from 19 June to 17 July 2027. It will be the first AFCON staged by three host countries. It also marks a return to East Africa after 51 years.
Sierra Leone’s night in El Jadida, Morocco, showed why the AFCON 2027 qualifiers rarely follow the script. Conteh and Tarawallie scored inside the first half hour. Sierra Leone led Zimbabwe 2-0 and looked in control. Then it fell apart. Munetsi struck twice either side of a Chirewa goal. Zimbabwe won 3-2, snatching a game that had already looked settled.
Sierra Leone were not even playing at home. The country lacks a stadium built to CAF’s international standard. Niger, Mauritania and Namibia shared that problem in this opening round of the AFCON 2027 qualifiers, all three forced onto neutral ground. Sudan’s case was starker. Their home match against Ethiopia was moved to Juba, South Sudan, because of the civil war raging at home. Sudan still won it, 1-0, through Eisa’s 86th-minute penalty.
Nigeria offered the mirror image of Sierra Leone’s night. The Super Eagles lost 2-0 to Madagascar at the 2019 finals in Egypt, a result that drew widespread criticism in Nigeria despite the experience within the squad. Seven years on, in Uyo, Nigeria trailed again inside sixteen minutes. This time they hit back. Ilenikhena equalised in first-half stoppage time. Usor won it in the 65th minute. Vanguard’s matchday report confirms the final score as 2-1. It settles an old score and gives Éric Chelle a winning start to his first AFCON 2027 qualifiers campaign as head coach.
Elsewhere, reputation counted for little. Uganda, a co-host already through to the finals, were held 1-1 away to Tunisia. Senegal, one of the continent’s strongest sides, could only draw 1-1 in Maputo against Mozambique.
Tanzania, also assured of a finals place as co-hosts, lost 2-0 at home to Guinea-Bissau. None of these results change who reaches the finals from the three host nations, yet each one stung.
There was better news from Bakau, where Gambia opened their AFCON 2027 qualifiers with a win. Colley converted a first-half penalty and Badamosi struck late as Gambia beat Somalia 2-1. The win puts them level at the top of Group C with Ivory Coast, who beat Ghana 2-0 in Bouake. Yalcouye and a Kessie penalty did the damage there, in Hervé Renard’s first match back in charge of the Elephants.
Kenya’s own AFCON 2027 qualifiers campaign, as co-hosts, was still to begin as this report was filed. The Harambee Stars were due to host Eritrea in Nairobi later on Saturday. Eritrea bring one of African football’s most remarkable comeback stories. They had not played a competitive qualifier in nineteen years before this campaign. They only returned after eliminating Eswatini 4-1 on aggregate in March. Sulieman scored three of Eritrea’s four goals across that tie.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe has defended the choice of East Africa for the finals despite persistent doubts over readiness. “I am enormously confident we will succeed in hosting the 2027 AFCON in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda,” Motsepe said, according to CAF’s own media office. He added that the three co-host nations would deliver one of the most unique tournaments the continent has staged.
The stakes behind these results are simple. Only the top two in each group advance in the AFCON 2027 qualifiers. In the three groups containing a co-host, only one extra qualifying place is on offer, since Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have already secured theirs. That single rule turns fixtures like Guinea’s trip to South Africa, also played on Saturday, into contests with outsized consequences.
Matchday two of the AFCON 2027 qualifiers begins on Monday and runs into October. Nigeria travel to Guinea-Bissau. Sierra Leone host Equatorial Guinea. Zimbabwe face DR Congo. The opening weekend proved one thing above all else. Nobody in this campaign can be judged on reputation alone, and nobody, as Sierra Leone discovered in the cruellest way, should celebrate a two-goal lead before the final whistle.
