The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign is in the books, with all 24 qualifiers for next year's biennial competition now confirmed.
Here, ESPN present the definitive recap on all things AFCON qualifying; the table, standings, rules, schedule and everything else in between.
Click here for fixtures, scores and standings.
Qualified: Morocco (hosts), Burkina Faso, Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Congo DR, Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Tunisia, Comoros, Gabon, Nigeria, Zambia, Mali, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Botswana, Benin, Sudan, Tanzania, Mozambique
Eliminated: Lesotho, Liberia, Eswatini, Namibia, Burundi, South Sudan, Malawi, Gambia, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Cape Verde, Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Congo-Brazzaville, Mauritania, Rwanda, Libya, Niger, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau
What is the Africa Cup of Nations?
The Africa Cup of Nations is the biennial football competition between the top African national sides to crown the continental champion.
It's Africa's equivalent of UEFA's European Championship, the CONCACAF Gold Cup or the Copa América to celebrate South America's finest, and has been running since the inaugural edition in 1957.
Commonly known as the AFCON - an abbreviation of 'Africa Cup of Nations' - the tournament is also known as the 'CAN' or the Coupe d'Afrique des Nations in French-speaking territories within Africa and beyond.
Initially featuring only three participants, the AFCON has expanded to include 24 teams in the finals - just over 44 percent of all eligible African confederations.
When is the next AFCON?
The next Africa Cup of Nations will take place between December 21 2025 and January 18 2026, with Morocco set to host the tournament across six cities.
The unorthodox scheduling is a direct consequence of FIFA's expansion of the Club World Cup competition, which will now take place in June and July of 2025, clashing with the original AFCON dates.
The expanded UEFA Champions League, which kicked off this season, also extends the footprint of this competition, leaving the AFCON squeezed in across Christmas and New Year.
Morocco took on the mantle of host nation in September 2023 after Guinea was stripped of hosting rights due to inadequate infrastructure and facilities.
AFCON qualifying: How does it work?
Over the years, the Confederation of African Football has toyed around with various different formats for AFCON qualifying, taking into account the changing number of nations entering the campaign, and the occasional expansions of the tournament itself.
For 2025, the format was as follows: the eight lowest ranked entrants (as per the February 2024 FIFA World Rankings) contested the preliminary round in March, with four sides going through following home-and-away play-offs.
The four successful minnows then advanced to the 48-team group stage, where they were joined by 43 qualifying hopefuls, plus hosts Morocco to be drawn into 12 groups of four teams in a draw ceremony in Johannesburg in July.
Each group followed a traditional round-robin format, with each team playing each other home and away between September 2 and November 19, when the qualifying campaign concluded.
The top two teams from each group advanced to the tournament proper,, with the exception of Group B, where Gabon are the only side to progress alongside qualified hosts Morocco.
What happened if teams were tied?
For this qualifying campaign, CAF opted for a head-to-head system to decide teams tied on the same number of points, rather than sorting by goal difference.
This means that had two teams finished the group stage level on points, it would have been the results of the matches between the pair that were taken into account when deciding who finished higher.
Head to head came into play in Group B, where Benin and Rwanda finished level on eight points, and despite each winning one of their matches against the other, the former advanced on head-to-head goal difference after a 3-0 victory in Abidjan in October.
The standout results
Ghana 0-1 Angola (Gameweek 1): A match that ultimately set the tone for both teams' campaign, as the Black Stars were frustrated in Kumasi before Felicio Milson scored a 93rd-minute winner. Ghana found themselves in a downward spiral from which they were unable to truly recover, while Angola, having won the toughest match of the campaign, went on to win the group with 14 points.
Tunisia 0-1 Comoros (Gameweek 3): Both teams would go on to qualify for the tournament, but this was one of the shocks of the campaign, with Tunisia typically an ominous and fearsome prospect in Tunis. However, this Comoros side have improved dramatically in recent years - they reached the Last 16 of the 2021 AFCON - and have Rafiki Said to thank for a second-half winner that secured one of their most famous triumphs. Comoros end the qualifying campaign unbeaten - previously hard to imagine from the tiny islanders - and have lost just one full international in the entirety of 2024.
Sudan 2-0 Ghana (Gameweek 4): This is when things really began to look bleak for the Black Stars. After being held 0-0 at home by Sudan in their previous match, they were hit by a sucker punch in Benghazi, as two goals inside three second-half minutes secured maximum points for the Falcons of Jediane and former Black Stars head coach Kwesi Appiah. It left Sudan needing just one more point to progress, while Ghana needed to win both of their outstanding matches to advance.
Libya 0-3 Nigeria (Gameweek 4): If you don't remember Nigeria winning 3-0 away in Libya, it's because this match never actually took place, with the Super Eagles awarded a walkover by CAF's Disciplinary Committee after the North Africans were adjudged to have deliberately breached the competition guidelines. Having complained of poor treatment during the first match between the pair in Nigeria, Libya then allegedly arranged for the Eagles' plane to be diverted to a different city ahead of the return match, before Augustine Eguavoen's side were detained inside Al Abraq airport without sustenance for over 12 hours. Nigeria ultimately boycotted the match and flew home to conclude a wretched low point in the qualifying programme.
Angola 1-1 Ghana (Gameweek 5): The result that ultimately dumped the Black Stars out of the running for the AFCON, with the four-time champions missing out for only the second time since 1990. Despite taking the lead through Jordan Ayew, fuelling hope of a remarkable turnaround, they were unable to recover from Zini's 64th-minute equaliser and were condemned to elimination before gameweek six.
Morocco 7-0 Lesotho (Gameweek 6): Morocco didn't need to be competitive during the qualifying campaign, with their place at next year's tournament on home soil already secured. However, they didn't let up across their six qualifiers, netting 26 goals across the campaign (averaging 4.3 per match) which is ten more than the next highest scorers (Algeria and South Africa). The 7-0 demolition of poor Lesotho was the highlight, with Brahim Díaz netting a fine hat-trick during a magnificent individual display. During the course of the qualifying campaign, Diaz alone scored more than 26 teams.
Egypt 1-1 Botswana (Gameweek 6): This was the result that took Botswana to the Nations Cup - only the second in their history - despite the minnows being ranked down in 140th in the world in the FIFA rankings. They've earned their place on merit, however, not least in holding a Mohamed Salah-less Egypt at bay to secure the point they needed to progress. Admittedly, they were hanging on for dear life after Trézéguet's 14th-minute equaliser, with the hosts enjoying 82-percent of possession and 30 shots to Botswana's four. Nonetheless, a combination of the Pharaohs' profligacy and Goitseone Phoko's heroics in goal see Egypt drop their first points at home since before COVID, while the Zebras return to the top table for the first time since 2012.