David GOMBE
The draw for the final round of the African qualifiers was held on Saturday in Douala, Cameroon.
CAF competitions Director Samson Adamu alongside Emmanuel Adebayor and El Hadji Diouf conducted the draw.
The draw had 10 countries who were winners of their groups in the second round of African World Cup qualifiers played between September and November.
Liverpool teammates Saido Mane and Mohamed Salah will face off in the final round of the African World Cup playoffs after Senegal were drawn against Egypt.
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The tie means that only one of Mane and Salah will make it to Qatar 2022 for the global showpiece. Egypt and Senegal were two of the five countries that represented the continent at the last finals in Russia.
Meanwhile, Riyad Mahrez’s Algeria have been drawn against Cameroon. The two nations also faced off in the third qualifying group ahead of the 2018 Russia World Cup and were placed in a group that saw Nigeria progress.
In their meetings Cameroon won 2-0 in Yaounde with the return game in Algiers ending in 1-1 stalemate.
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Mali will face Tunisia a game that will remind many of the recent meeting in the ongoing AFCON in Cameroon when Zambian referee Danny Sikazwe first blew for fulltime after 85 minutes in a group F contest.
He later ended the game before the clock had reached the 90th minute mark.
Mali are the only nation of the ten play sides never to have advanced to the World cup finals.
African Giants Ghana and Nigeria will fight for the other place to this year’s World Cup. Ghana were eliminated at the group stage of the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
Elsewhere, Morocco were drawn against Democratic Republic of Congo, who did not qualify for the Nations Cup in Cameroon.
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Games are expected to be played in March this year to determine the five nations that will represent the African continent in Qatar.
The draw recap:
Egypt vs Senegal
Ghana vs Nigeria
Mali vs Tunisia
DR Congo vs Morocco
Cameroon vs Algeria
