Nigeria and Ghana suffer huge AFCON 2027 qualifying shocks

West ⁠African giants Ghana and Nigeria both suffered chastening defeats in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers late Tuesday, while Algeria fought back from two goals down to avoid a shock loss to Burundi. Tiny Cape Verde, who won legions of admirers with their gutsy exploits at this year’s World Cup, also went down in a surprise home loss to Rwanda. But heavyweight contenders Egypt, Morocco and Senegal all won difficult away assignments, and there were home wins for Benin, Comoros, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia on a busy day of 17 matches in the preliminaries for the 2027 finals to be cohosted by Kenya, Tanzania and ⁠Uganda.