JOHANNESBURG, Sept 9: Senegal’s Henri Camara, who scored twice to steer the west African country into the World Cup quarterfinals three months ago, continued his run of form by scoring in their 1-0 win against Lesotho in the weekend’s African Nations Cup qualifiers.

Senegal had a modest start to their group eight campaign with Camara netting the game’s only goal just before half-time.

Senegal, without African Footballer of the Year El Hadji Diouf and with a stand-in coach, had little trouble overcoming their hosts but had Khalilou Fadiga sent off late in the game, earning him a suspension for their next qualifier against Gambia.

Senegal’s relatively easy assignment contrasted sharply with the tough tasks set two other World Cup finalists — Nigeria and South Africa — in their opening Nations Cup qualifiers.

Both won hard-earned, and potentially vital, away points in goalless draws respectively.

Nigeria drew in Luanda against Angola on Sunday, surviving a header from Angolan striker Bruno Mauro that crashed against their woodwork 10 minutes into the second half, while South Africa also needed strong resistance in Abidjan to force a scoreless draw with the Ivory Coast.

Nigeria’s new coach Christian Chukwu called up a strong squad but had to play a makeshift team after many of the country’s top foreign-based players failed to show for the game, including Arsenal’s Nwankwo Kanu.

But Nigeria were only stretched once by the Angolans and cruised through the 90 minutes to collect their point.

The weekend offered a rare chance for some of the continent’s smaller countries to hog the spotlight in the opening qualifiers for the 2004 finals in Tunisia.

The Cape Verde Islands, Seychelles and Niger were among the winners while four-time winners Egypt and Ghana both suffered embarrassing defeats.

A 25-metre shot by Roddy Victor gave the Seychelles only their third-ever win as they beat Eritrea 1-0 on Saturday.

The Cape Verdians, with several players brought in from clubs in Europe, won 2-0 away at Mauritania, including a goal from Portuguese-based captain Toni.

Niger’s captain Ibrahim Tankary scored twice as his side came from a goal down to beat Ethiopia 3-1 in Niamey and also register a rare victory.

Egypt and Ghana were embarrassed in Madagascar and Uganda respectively in their games on Saturday. Ruphin Menakely returned to the Malagasy side to score the only goal in Antananarivo while Philip Obwiny was the hero for Uganda’s Cranes as they upset Ghana by the same score line in Kampala.

The match between the Central African Republic and Mozambique was postponed by 24 hours after the appointed referee failed to arrive in time for the Sunday kick-off in Bangui. It will take place on Monday, officials said.

It is not the first time that a game has been held over because of the failure of officials to arrive in the Central African republic, which has notoriously poor airline connections.

Mozambique’s team travelled three days through Cameroon and Nigeria to get to Bangui for the match.

Results

Group one

Angola 0 Nigeria 0

Group two

Niger 3 Ethiopia 1

Guinea 3 Liberia 0

Group three

Benin 4 Tanzania 0

Sudan 0 Zambia 1

Central African Republic v Mozambique postponed to Monday

Congo 0 Burkina Faso 0

Group five

Mauritania 0 Cape Verde Islands 2

Kenya 3 Togo 0

Group six

Seychelles 1 Eritrea 0

Zimbabwe 1 Mali 0

Group seven

Gabon 0 Morocco 1

Equatorial Guinea 1 Sierra Leone 3

Equatorial Guinea - Lino Makuba 81

Group eight

Lesotho 0 Senegal 1

Group nine

Botswana 0 Swaziland 0

Libya 3 Democratic Republic of Congo 2

Group 10

Madagascar 1 Egypt 0

Group 11

Ivory Coast 0 South Africa 0

Group 12

Namibia 0 Algeria 1

Group 13

Uganda 1 Ghana 0

—Reuters