{"id":9536,"date":"2015-10-12T08:19:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T12:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=9536"},"modified":"2015-10-12T11:37:44","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T15:37:44","slug":"ethiopia-kenya-and-tanzania-advance-to-second-round-of-2018-russia-world-cup-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/9536","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania Advance to Second Round of 2018 Russia World Cup Qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ethiofans\"<\/a>ADDIS ABABA – Three East African teams became the first on the continent to advance to the second-round of qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania managed to secure their places in the next round with aggregate victories<\/a> – just one team recorded a win over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The Walya Antelopes, who hosted Sao Tome e Principe in Addis Ababa, were conscious not to allow a repeat of their shocking defeat to the Islanders<\/a> on Thursday. Sao Tome’s 1-0 victory over Ethiopia was their first ever World Cup win.<\/p>\n

The Walya\u2019s Dawit Fekadu first minute goal presaged the 3-0 thrashing of Sao Tome e Principe in the second-leg tie. The Ethiopia team dominated the match but missed several chances and were unable to increase their tally until the second half. In the 48th minute, Gatoch Panom scored a penalty kick and Ramkel Lok scored the third goal in the 74th minute.<\/p>\n

The Walya Antelopes are scheduled to face Condo Brazzaville in November, when the next round of qualifiers would be played.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Nairobi, Kenyan supporters were disappointed and many booed as the Harambee Stars narrowly secured a goalless draw against Mauritius<\/a>. Kenya was spared a defeat by poor finishing from Mauritius. The island nation lost 5-2 to Kenya at home during the first-leg of the match on Wednesday. On Sunday, a series of brilliant saves from goal-keeper Kevin jean-Louis, who was later awarded man of the match, kept the tie goalless.<\/p>\n

Kenya is scheduled to meet Cape Verde Islands in the next round of games.<\/p>\n

In Blantyre, Tanzania lost 1-0 to neighbors Malawi despite recording a 2-0 victory during the first leg in Dar-es-Salaam last week. Tanzania\u2019s goalkeeper Ally Mustafa was busy throughout the game. Despite his efforts, Malawi\u2019s John Banda scored a 43rd minute goal.<\/p>\n

The Flames of Malawi dominated the second half and were determined to grab a second goal, which would have leveled the tie and led to a penalty shootout. They came close on several occasions but were unable to put the ball in the net.<\/p>\n

The Taifa stars advance to the next round of the qualifiers due their two goal advantage. Tanzania now faces a difficult next round as they come against the highly ranked Algerian team.<\/p>\n

Many teams across the continent are scheduled to play their second-leg fixtures on Tuesday. The 40 teams that qualify to the second round will contend for the five slots reserved for African teams at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.<\/p>\n

Photo by AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ADDIS ABABA – Three East African teams became the first on the continent to advance to the second-round of qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia on Sunday. Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania managed to secure their places in…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,46],"tags":[4303,3918,4306,4304,4305,4307],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9536"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9536"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9545,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9536\/revisions\/9545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}