Ghana, Egypt, South Africa among African giants missing CHAN tournament

Ghana, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa and Mali are among five African giants who will miss out of the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Kenya after suffering aggregate defeats this weekend.

The five countries boast some of the top national teams on the continent and some of the best league in Africa yet could not overcome little fancied opposition to reach the tournament exclusively made for home-based players.

The Black Stars B are the latest team to fail to qualify after they stunned 2-1 by Burkina Faso in Kumasi on Sunday to advance 4-3 on aggregate.

On Friday, Egypt and Algeria failed to qualify for the CHAN finals in Kenya after suffering aggregate defeats to Morocco and Libya respectively.

Morocco beat Egypt 3-1 in Rabat on Friday to win the tie 4-2 overall.

The Moroccans clinched their place thanks to three second-half goals from Jawad Yamiq, Abderrahim Maqran and Badr Belhrouz.

Hamid Hossam scored a late consolation goal for Egypt, who were making their debut in the biennial competition for home-based footballers.

Libya held Algeria to a 1-1 draw in Sfax to go through to the finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Algeria knew they had to score at least twice against Libya to survive having lost the first leg 2-1, and they took the lead midway through the first half when Sofiane Bendebka scored off a rebound.

But first-leg match-winner Muaid Ellafi levelled on the stroke of half-time and Libya held on to take the aggregate win.

Mauritania stunned Mali 1-0 in Bamako in the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifiers on Saturday.

The hard-fought victory earns Les Mourabitones a place in next year CHAN finals after winning the tie 3-2 on aggregate.

The West Zone A second-leg clash was played at the Stade Modibo Kéïta in Mali's capital city, Bamako.

Justin Shonga struck twice in a space of five minutes on Saturday to book Zambia a ticket to Kenya at the expense of South Africa.

The tie was even at 79 minutes before Shonga was set up by second half substitute Godfrey Ngwenya to drive home a powerful shot that left Bruce Bvuma helpless between the sticks.

Shonga was not done as he struck in the 82nd minute to dump Bafana Bafana out of the CHAN race after having drawn 2-all in the first leg.

Despite CHAN matches only featuring locally-based footballers the games have full international status and count toward the monthly Fifa rankings.