Egypt sauntered into the World Cup finals with a 3-0 win over Djibouti on Wednesday, becoming the third African side to book their place, while the Cape Verde Islands and Ghana both took a step closer to joining them.
Mohamed Salah scored twice after Ibrahim Adel opened the scoring as Egypt beat the small Red Sea nation in Casablanca to take top place in Group A, ahead of Burkina Faso who won 1-0 away over Sierra Leone.
Egypt, who have been to three previous World Cups, have an unassailable 23 points in an unbeaten campaign and join the already qualified Morocco and Tunisia at next year’s tournament in North America.
Tiny Cape Verde will have to wait five more days, however, before getting a last chance to secure a first-ever World Cup spot after they drew 3-3 away in a thrilling Group D encounter in Libya on Wednesday.
Ghana, who reached the quarter-finals in 2010, maintained their three-point advantage over Madagascar in Group I as they beat the Central African Republic 5-0 in Meknes, while the Malagasy won 2-1 over the Comoros Islands amid a torrential downpour in Abidjan.
Ghana only need a point from their last group fixture at home to Comoros in Accra on Sunday after defender Mohammed Salisu headed them into the lead in the 20th minute and Thomas Partey, Alexander Djiku, Jordan Ayew and Kamaldeen Sulemana added more in the second half.
Cape Verde should have won in Tripoli in stoppage time and secured a fairytale World Cup spot, but were denied by a wrong offside call when they had four players clear on a counter-attack in the last minute.
Cape Verde on brink of World Cup place
They had fought back from 3-1 down early in the second half to level with eight minutes to go and also had an effort cleared off the line in stoppage time.
But they will become the second smallest nation to qualify for a World Cup if they beat Eswatini at home on Monday.
Cape Verde moved on to 20 points, two ahead of second-placed Cameroon, who took almost an hour before Nicolas Ngamaleu opened the scoring with Bryan Mbeumo adding a second in stoppage time to win 2-0 away in Mauritius.
Angola, who are going to the Africa Cup of Nations at the end of the year, had to fight back to avoid an embarrassing loss at Eswatini drawing 2-2 in the first match in charge for new coach Patrice Beaumelle.
Mali won 2-0 at Chad and Ethiopia were 1-0 winners over Guinea Bissau in other clashes on Wednesday.