2015 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations was the 2nd edition of the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, the quadrennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the men's under-23 national teams of Africa. The tournament started on 28 November and finished on 12 December 2015.[1] A total of eight teams are playing in the tournament.

Not to be confused with Football at the 2015 African Games – Men's tournament.
2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations
2015 Coupe d'Afrique des nations U-23
Tournament details
Host country Senegal
Dates28 November – 12 December
Teams8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Nigeria (1st title)
Runners-up Algeria
Third place South Africa
Fourth place Senegal
Tournament statistics
Matches played16
Goals scored36 (2.25 per match)
Top scorer(s)Nigeria Etebo Oghenekaro (5 goals)
Best player(s)Nigeria Azubuike Okechukwu
Best goalkeeperAlgeria Abdelkader Salhi
Fair play award South Africa

The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 5–19 December 2015.[2][3] However, CAF changed the hosts and requested Senegal to host the tournament instead,[4] and the tournament dates were also changed.

On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee decided to change the name of the tournament from the CAF U-23 Championship to the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, similar to the senior's version, Africa Cup of Nations.[5]

Same as the previous edition, the tournament acted as the CAF qualifiers for the Olympic football tournament. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Brazil as the CAF representatives.[6]

Nigeria won the tournament with a 1–0 final win over Algeria. Both finalists and third-placed South Africa qualified for the Olympics.[7]

Qualification
Main article: 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualification

Senegal qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from April to August 2015.[3]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Defending champions Gabon failed to qualify after they lost to Mali.

Team Appearance Previous best performance
 Algeria2ndGroup stage (2011)
 Egypt2ndThird place (2011)
 Mali1stDebut
 Nigeria2ndGroup stage (2011)
 Senegal (hosts)2ndFourth place (2011)
 South Africa2ndGroup stage (2011)
 Tunisia1stDebut
 Zambia1stDebut

Venues

The tournament was held in two venues.[1]

Dakar
Locations of the 2015 U-23 Afcon venues
 M'Bour
Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor Stade Caroline Faye
Capacity: 60,000 Capacity: 5,000

Squads
Further information: 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each squad could contain a maximum of 21 players.[8]

Match officials

A total of 10 referees and 13 assistant referees were selected.[9]

Group stage

The draw for the final tournament of the competition took place on 14 September 2015, 11:00 UTC+2, at the CAF headquarters in Cairo.[5] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four.[10] For the draw, the hosts Senegal were seeded in position A1 and the previous tournament's best-placed qualified team Egypt were seeded in position B1. The remaining six teams were drawn from one pot to fill the other positions in the two groups.[11]

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[8]

  1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
  2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
  3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
  4. If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
  5. Goal difference in all games;
  6. Goals scored in all games;
  7. Drawing of lots.

All times were local, GMT (UTC±0).[12]

Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Senegal (H) 3 3 0 0 6 1 +5 9 Knockout stage
2  South Africa 3 2 0 1 5 5 0 6
3  Tunisia 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3
4  Zambia 3 0 0 3 3 6 −3 0
Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Senegal 3–1 South Africa
Keita 15' (pen.), 20'
S. Sarr 87'		 Report Ntshangase 27' (pen.)
Referee: Rédouane Jiyed (Morocco)
Zambia 1–2 Tunisia
Kampamba 15' Report Jouini 3', 83'
Referee: Juste Ephrem Zio (Burkina Faso)
South Africa 3–2 Zambia
Masuku 46'
Motupa 51', 58'		 Report Luchanga 34'
Katema 72'
Tunisia 0–2 Senegal
Report Diédhiou 8'
Diallo 84'
Referee: Bienvenu Sinko (Ivory Coast)
Senegal 1–0 Zambia
Diallo 3' Report
Referee: Joshua Bondo (Botswana)
South Africa 1–0 Tunisia
Masuku 85' Report

Group B
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Algeria 3 1 2 0 3 1 +2 5 Knockout stage
2  Nigeria 3 1 2 0 5 4 +1 5
3  Mali 3 1 0 2 3 5 −2 3
4  Egypt 3 0 2 1 3 4 −1 2
Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Egypt 1–1 Algeria
Kahraba 54' Report Chita 68'
Referee: Malang Diedhiou (Senegal)
Mali 2–3 Nigeria
Niane 55' (pen.)
A. Diarra 64'		 Report Ajayi 15', 45'
Usman 33'
Referee: Hamada Nampiandra (Madagascar)
Algeria 2–0 Mali
Ferhat 72'
Y. Traoré 83' (o.g.)		 Report
Referee: Joshua Bondo (Botswana)
Nigeria 2–2 Egypt
Oghenekaro 20' (pen.), 30' (pen.) Report Sobhi 47'
Elsayed 51'
Referee: Antoine Effa (Cameroon)
Egypt 0–1 Mali
Report Coulibaly 18'
Referee: Hudu Munyemana (Rwanda)
Algeria 0–0 Nigeria
Report
Referee: Malang Diedhiou (Senegal)

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time would be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time would be played.[8]

Bracket
 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
9 December – Dakar
 
 
 Senegal0
 
12 December – Dakar
 
 Nigeria1
 
 Nigeria2
 
9 December – Dakar
 
 Algeria1
 
 Algeria2
 
 
 South Africa0
 
Third place
 
 
12 December – Dakar
 
 
 Senegal0 (1)
 
 
 South Africa (p)0 (3)

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics.

Senegal 0–1 Nigeria
Report Oghenekaro 76' (pen.)
Referee: Redouane Jiyed (Morocco)
Algeria 2–0 South Africa
Darfalou 8'
Benkhemassa 49'		 Report
Referee: Juste Ephrem Zio (Burkina Faso)

Third place play-off

Winner qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics.

Senegal 0–0 South Africa
Report
Penalties
Badji soccer ball with red X
Diaw soccer ball with red X
I. Sarr soccer ball with check mark
S. Sarr soccer ball with red X		 1–3 soccer ball with check mark Motupa
soccer ball with red X Mngonyama
soccer ball with check mark Masuku
soccer ball with red X Dolly
soccer ball with check mark Mahlambi
Referee: Hudu Munyemana (Rwanda)

Final
Nigeria 2–1 Algeria
Oghenekaro 14' (pen.), 40' Report Tope 30' (o.g.)
Referee: Hamada Nampiandra (Madagascar)

Winners
 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations champions 

Nigeria
First title

Final ranking

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Final result
1st place, gold medalist(s)  Nigeria 5 3 2 0 8 5 +3 11 Champions
2nd place, silver medalist(s)  Algeria 5 2 2 1 6 3 +3 8 Runners-up
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)  South Africa 5 2 1 2 5 7 −2 7 Third place
4  Senegal (H) 5 3 1 1 6 2 +4 10 Fourth place
5  Mali 3 1 0 2 3 5 −2 3 Eliminated in
Group stage
6  Tunisia 3 1 0 2 2 4 −2 3
7  Egypt 3 0 2 1 3 4 −1 2
8  Zambia 3 0 0 3 3 6 −3 0
Source: CAF
(H) Hosts

Qualified teams for Olympics

The following three teams from CAF qualified for the Olympic football tournament.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1
 Nigeria9 December 20156 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2008)
 Algeria9 December 20151 (1980)
 South Africa12 December 20151 (2000)
1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year. Statistics include all Olympic format (current Olympic under-23 format started in 1992).

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:[13]

Goalscorers
5 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
  • Mali Youssouf Traoré (playing against Algeria)
  • Nigeria Oduduwa Segun Tope (playing against Algeria)

References
  1. "CAF Executive Committee decisions of 26 May 2015". CAF. 27 May 2015.
  2. "CAF Media Tweet". CAF. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  3. "CAF Full Calendar". CAFonline.com. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  4. "Macky Sall accepts to host U-23 Championship in December". CAF. 14 March 2015.
  5. "Decisions of CAF Executive Committee on 6 August 2015". CAF. 9 August 2015.
  6. "QUALIFICATION SYSTEM – GAMES OF THE XXXI OLYMPIAD – RIO 2016 – Football" (PDF). Rio 2016 Official Website. 23 April 2014. Archived from the original (pdf) on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  7. "South Africa grab Africa's final Rio ticket". FIFA.com. 12 December 2015. Archived from the original on December 15, 2015.
  8. "Regulations U23 AFCON English" (PDF). CAF.
  9. "Referees for U-23 AFCON Senegal 2015 announced". CAF. 16 November 2015.
  10. "Results of draw for Final Tournament". CAF. 14 September 2015.
  11. "Procedure for AFCON U-23 Senegal 2015 Final Tournament Draw". CAF. 13 September 2015.
  12. "Fixtures of the Final Tournament of the 2nd U23 Africa Cup of Nations, Senegal 2015" (PDF). CAF.
  13. "Azubuike named Most Valuable Player". CAF. 14 December 2015.
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