Group 12 – Africa. 28 teams entered, playing for 2 spots at the finals in Mexico. The whole tournament was staged in direct elimination rounds, the opening one seeded geographically, the following ones were not. As usual, teams withdrew without playing a single game and their opponents got walkovers, but that happened only in the first round.
Given the current ‘fame’, based on performance at the 1982 World Cup mostly, the big upset was the early elimination of Cameroon – they lost to Zambia 1-4 and 1-1 in the second round. The picture above is from a friendly with Saudi Arabia.
Zambia itself did not last long – Algeria eliminated them in the third round.
Here is Algeria, going strong and just about to finish Zambia. Another supposedly strong team at the moment – Egypt – was also eliminated in the third round: they lost to Morocco 0-0 and 0-2. Libya on the other hand was progressing fine – just like her club did well internationally this year. A bit of a surprise, but Libya reached the final stage. So did Tunisia after disposing Nigeria in the third round.
The final round. Tunisia vs Algeria. All was concluded in Tunis, where the visitors won 4-1. Algeria won its home leg 3-0 for good measure. Both games were conducted by European referees.
Tunisia, featured here against Nigeria, blew up its chance to reach the world cup finals for a second time. Well, Algeria proved to be too mucg for them.
And Algeria qualified to the world cup finals for second time in a row – the first African team to do so. It was splendid campaign – Algeria did not lose a single match and only once they were tied, in the second round by Angola (0-0 in Luanda). Menad scored 3 goals against Tunisia, Madjer – 2.
Morocco got strong lead in the first match in Rabat, winning 3-0. In Benghazi Libya prevailed, but only 1-0 and Morocco qualified. The match in Rabat was the only one at the final round refereed by an African – the second leg in Benghazi was given to the Italian leading referee Agnolin.
A moment from the the decisive clash and rare glimpse at the Libyan national team players. Moroccans protest a goal they scored and seemingly dismissed by the referee in the opening match.
Morocco, coached by the Brazilian Jose Faria, reached the finals for the second time. It was very long wait, but Mexico was lucky name for them: it was the 1970 Mexican World Cup they debuted at the finals and now again they were going to Mexico. Africa still had only a handful appearances at the final world stage, but already Morocco and Algeria had more than any other African country and new rivalry emerged – which one was better: Algeria, qualifying twice in a row, or Morocco, which projected consistency.