JOHANNESBURG: A late Anwar Sid Ali goal enabled Somalia to shock Zimbabwe 1-0 on Thursday and achieve their first World Cup qualifying victory.

Unable to play at home because of the unstable security situation in the east African country, the Somalis moved the first round first leg to Djibouti.

The Ocean Stars shrugged off the disadvantage to win the match four minutes from time when Ali soared to head a perfectly weighted cross into the corner of the net.

Zimbabwe, who competed at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations three months ago, host the return match in Harare Tuesday.

This is the sixth appearance of the Somalis in World Cup qualifying and they have been able to play at home only once, in a 1982 eliminator.

The best results they managed before facing Zimbabwe were three draws. They lost eight other qualifiers, including five-goal hidings from Ghana and Ethiopia.

Somalia are ranked 202 of 211 football nations — 90 places below Zimbabwe in the latest world rankings.

Sudan and Rwanda achieved comfortable away victories in other first legs, virtually guaranteeing progress to the second qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Ramadan Agab notched a hat-trick as Sudan beat neighbouring Chad, only the third away win for the Jediane Falcons in 32 World Cup qualifiers.

Agab opened the scoring early in Ndjamena and extended the lead when Chad goalkeeper goalkeeper Adoum Defallah hit his goal kick straight at Agab who needed no second invitation to put the ball in the net after 67 minutes.

He completed his treble with a close-range finish six minutes later. Chads consolation goal came from an 85th-minute penalty converted by captain Ezechiel N’Douassel.

Two goals in four minutes helped Rwanda to a comfortable 3-0 away win over the Seychelles in their first-round first-leg qualifier in Victoria.

Muhadjiri Hakizimana opened the scoring just after the half hour and Yannick Mukunzi soon doubled the lead.

Meddy Kagare made sure of the biggest winning margin of the African qualifiers so far with the third goal 10 minutes from time.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2019