CAPE TOWN: Tunisia needed a late penalty to beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 and move to the top of the standings in their World Cup qualifying group as Africa’s preliminaries for the 2026 finals resumed on Wednesday.

Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane struck the 81st-minute spotkick to deny Equatorial Guinea a deserved point as they looked to shrug off the FIFA sanctions that stripped them of the six points from their opening two qualifiers in November.

FIFA found striker Emilio Nsue, a former Spanish junior international, was ineligible to play for the small central African nation despite being in the team over the past 11 years, and reversed Equatorial Guineas victories in their opening two matches against Namibia and Liberia.

But the sanction that has seen Nsue, top scorer at the Africa Cup of Natiions finals at the start of the year, suspended for six months looked to have little ill effect on Equatorial Guinea, as they again punched above their weight against one of Africa’s top achievers.

The goal came after a collision between Jannick Buyla and Tunisia’s flying fullback Hamza Mathlouthi that the referee deemed a push.

Tunisia move to nine points in Group ‘H’, above Namibia who were held earlier in the day to a 1-1 draw by Liberia in Soweto, South Africa.

Tjipee Karuuombe made a surging run from deep in midfield to get onto a delightful chip from Ben Namib to steer home the ball after eight minutes for Namibia, forced to move the match because of the lack of a suitable stadium.

Terry Sackor got the equaliser in the 65th minute as Liberia finally profited from the long throw that created endless havoc in the home defence.

Elsewhere, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic recorded their first wins while Togo drew for the third time.

Augustus Kargbo scored the early second-half goal that earned Sierra Leone a 2-1 win over bottom team Djibouti in a clash of Group ‘A’ minnows in the Moroccan port city of El Jadida.

French lower-league forward Venuste Baboula struck in the first half in Oujda as the third-placed Central Africans edged Chad 1-0 in Group ‘I’.

Khaled Narey gave fourth-placed Togo a 61st-minute lead over South Sudan in Group ‘B’, but South Sudan levelled through a Roger Aholou own-goal soon after to force a 1-1 draw in Lome.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2024