ABUJA: Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana face nervous finishes to African Cup of Nations qualifying this week, and the embarrassment of possibly sitting out the continental championship only months after playing at the World Cup.

The three are not yet certain of a place at next year’s tournament with one round of games to go. The last six of 16 spots in January and February in Equatorial Guinea will be decided in the last-round scramble on Wednesday, when Republic of Congo, Congo, Uganda and Malawi could be surprise qualifiers.

Defending champion Nigeria’s situation was dire after they failed to win any of their first three qualifiers and responded by firing 2013 African Cup-winning coach Stephen Keshi.

But with Keshi re-instated after his temporary replacement insisted he was still the best man for the job, Nigeria won 2-0 in Republic of Congo this weekend to climb into the qualifying places.

That means Nigeria will scrape through if they beat already-qualified South Africa at home on Wednesday. However, anything less could see Republic of Congo go through if they win in Sudan.

Ivory Coast also lifted themselves back into contention with a 5-1 rout of Sierra Leone. But they also face an already-qualified opponent in Cameroon, who beat the Ivorians 4-1 in September.

A draw in Abidjan will seal Ivory Coast’s place in Equatorial Guinea ahead of Congo.

Ghana top their group, but a surprise 1-0 loss in Uganda while captain Asamoah Gyan was missing with injury means there’s still work to do for the former World Cup quarter-finalists at home against Togo.

“We have to go all out in that game and I am sure we will qualify for the Nations Cup,” said Everton forward Christian Atsu.

Guinea’s commanding 4-1 victory in Togo in the penultimate round means any two of the four teams can still qualify automatically as top two finishers in the group.

Algeria, Cape Verde, Tunisia, South Africa, Zambia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Senegal have already qualified alongside Equatorial Guinea, the new stand-in host.

Fixtures (all times GMT):

Group ‘A’: Sudan v Congo Brazzaville (1700); Nigeria v South Africa (1700).

Group ‘B’: Ethiopia v Malawi (1400); Mali v Algeria (1400).

Group ‘C’: Gabon v Lesotho (1800); Burkina Faso v Angola (1800).

Group ‘D’: Ivory Coast v Cameroon (1400); Democratic Republic of Congo v Sierra Leone (1400).

Group ‘E’: Ghana v Togo (1600); Guinea v Uganda (1600).

Group ‘F’: Zambia v Cape Verde Islands (1600); Niger v Mozambique (1600).

Group ‘G’: Senegal v Botswana (2000); Tunisia v Egypt (2000).

Published in Dawn, November 19th , 2014