2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group L

Group L of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification tournament is one of the 12 groups that will decide the teams which qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals tournament. The group consists of four teams: Nigeria, Benin, Sierra Leone, and Lesotho.[1]

The teams will play against each other in home-and-away round-robin format, originally between November 2019 and September 2020.[2][3]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all matches of matchdays 3 and 4 scheduled for March 2020 had been postponed until further notice.[4] FIFA had recommended that all June 2020 international matches (matchday 5) be postponed,[5] and also postponed the September 2020 window (matchday 6) for CAF.[6]

On 30 June 2020, the CAF announced the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final tournament had been postponed from January 2021 to January 2022, without announcing the new dates of the remaining qualifiers.[7] On 19 August 2020, the CAF announced the new dates of the remaining qualifiers, with matchdays 3 and 4 rescheduled to be played between 9–17 November 2020, and matchdays 5 and 6 rescheduled to be played between 22 and 30 March 2021.[8]

Standings
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Nigeria 4 2 2 0 10 7 +3 8 Qualify for final tournament — 2–1 4–4 30 Mar
2  Benin 4 2 1 1 3 2 +1 7 22 Mar — 1–0 1–0
3  Sierra Leone 4 0 3 1 5 6 −1 3 0–0 30 Mar — 1–1
4  Lesotho 4 0 2 2 3 6 −3 2 2–4 0–0 22 Mar —
Updated to match(es) played on 17 November 2020. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Matches
Sierra Leone 1–1 Lesotho
 Report
  • Thabantso  90'
Attendance: 0[note 1]
Referee: Jean Ouattara (Burkina Faso)
Nigeria 2–1 Benin
 Report
Referee: Issa Sy (Senegal)
Benin 1–0 Sierra Leone
 Report
Referee: Jean-Marc Ganamandji (Central African Republic)
Lesotho 2–4 Nigeria
 Report
Referee: Joshua Bondo (Botswana)
Nigeria 4–4 Sierra Leone
 Report
Referee: Gilbert Cheruiyot (Kenya)
Benin 1–0 Lesotho
 Report
Sierra Leone 0–0 Nigeria
Report
Lesotho 0–0 Benin
Report
Referee: Chelangat Ali Sabilla (Uganda)
Benin v Nigeria
Lesotho v Sierra Leone
Nigeria v Lesotho
Sierra Leone v Benin

Goalscorers

There were 21 goals scored in 8 matches, for an average of 2.62 goals per match (as of 14 November 2020).

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Notes
  1. Sierra Leone played their home match against Lesotho without spectators because of an incident from the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification encounter between Sierra Leone and Liberia.[9][10]

References
  1. "Draw for 2021 Africa Cup of Nations released". CAF. 18 July 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  2. "TOTAL Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers 2021 Fixture" (PDF). CAF.
  3. "TOTAL Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers 2021 Fixture (March 2020)" (PDF). CAF.
  4. "Total AFCON 2021 qualifiers postponed". CAF. 13 March 2020.
  5. "Dedicated COVID-19 working group proposes recommendations after first meeting". FIFA.com. 3 April 2020.
  6. "FIFA Council unanimously approves COVID-19 Relief Plan". FIFA.com. 25 June 2020.
  7. "Decisions of CAF Executive Meeting – 30 June 2020". CAF. 30 June 2020.
  8. "Cameroon 2021 qualifiers resume November, Qatar 2022 set for May 2021". CAF. 19 August 2020.
  9. "DISCIPLINARY OVERVIEW – QUALIFIERS FOR THE FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™" (PDF). fifa.com. 8 October 2019.
  10. "Fifa orders Sierra Leone to play Lesotho behind closed doors". bbc.com. 8 October 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.