World Cup round-up

Samuel Eto's set Cameroon on the way to a third qualifying win

Africa could have the same five representatives at the 2002 World Cup as they did four years earlier if the early stages of qualifying are any indication.

Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa have all made strong starts, with only Nigeria having lost a game in the first three rounds of qualifying.

However, there are still five or six games left for each team, and the likes of Angola, Liberia, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Guinea can still dream of their first World Cup Finals.

Group A

The gap in class between African and Olympic champions Cameroon and their challengers is already evident.

The Indomitable Lions won 2-0 in Togo with goals from Olympic gold winners Samuel Eto'o and Patrick Mboma to record their third straight win after 3-0 thumpings of Libya away and then Angola.

Angola and Zambia clearly cannot be ruled out so early, and the former kept their challenge going with a second half comeback to beat Libya 3-1 after going in at the break one down.

1 Cameroon P3 GD 8-0 Pts 9; 2 Angola P3 GD 5-5 Pts 6; 3 Zambia P2 GD 3-2 Pts 3; 4 Togo P2 GD 0-4 Pts 0; 5 Libya P2 GD 1-6 Pts 0.

Previous results
Angola 2-1 Zambia
Libya 0-3 Cameroon
Zambia 2-0 Togo
Cameroon 3-0 Angola
Togo 0-2 Cameroon
Angola 3-1 Libya

Group B

Liberia are upsetting the applecart in Group B, having followed up a shock victory over Nigeria with an even more stunning success against Ghana, winning 3-1 away from home in Accra.

Ghana had started so convincingly by crashing in five goals against Sierra Leone, and surely thought they would be contesting a place in the Finals with the Super Eagles.

George Weah is closely marked by Ghana's Jacob Nettey in Accra

George Weah's Lone Star will probably be kicking themselves for an opening 2-0 loss in Sudan, who held out for nearly an hour in Port Harcourt against Nigeria last time out, but lost 3-0.

1 Nigeria P3 GD 6-2 Pts 6; 2 Liberia P3 GD 5-4 Pts 6; 3 Ghana P2 GD 6-3 Pts 3; 4 Sudan P2 GD 2-3 Pts 3; 5 Sierra Leone P2 GD 0-7 Pts 0.

Previous results
Nigeria 2-0 Sierra Leone
Sudan 2-0 Liberia
Liberia 2-1 Nigeria
Ghana 5-0 Sierra Leone
Nigeria 3-0 Sudan
Ghana 1-3 Liberia

Group C

The closely-contested nature of this North African- dominated group is reflected in the return of only six goals from the first six games - far fewer than all the other groups.

Morocco already look to be pursuing an effective strategy of picking up draws away and winning at home, and did their hopes a power of good by holding on for a 0-0 draw in Cairo last time out in front of a huge, partisan crowd.

Senegal could still have a say but they will need to show plenty of steel in some difficult away ties to come in Casablanca and Cairo.

1 Morocco P3 GD 2-1 Pts 5; 2 Algeria P3 GD 3-3 Pts 4; 3 Senegal P2 GD 1-1 Pts 2; 4 Egypt P2 GD 0-0 Pts 2; 5 Namibia P2 GD 0-1 Pts 1

Previous results
Algeria 1-1 Senegal
Namibia 0-0 Morocco
Senegal 0-0 Egypt
Morocco 2-1 Algeria
Algeria 1-0 Namibia
Egypt 0-0 Morocco

Group D

Tunisia took a giant step towards a repeat Finals appearance by managing a 2-1 victory away to Congo, which took them to seven points from three games.

In a relatively weak group, Ivory Coast confirmed they would be Tunisia's most likely challengers by winning 3-1 in Madagascar, thanks to a hat-trick from Ibrahima Bakayoko.

Ibrahima Bakayoko grabbed a treble for the Ivorians

The Elephants can count themselves lucky they are still so close after falling 2-0 behind at home to Tunisia in their opening game, but battling back to draw.

1 Tunisia P3 GD 5-3 Pts 7; 2 Ivory Coast P2 GD 5-3 Pts 4; 3 Madagascar P3 GD 4-4 Pts 3; 4 DR Congo P2 GD 2-3 Pts 3; 5 Congo P2 GD 1-4 Pts 0

Previous results
Madagascar 3-0 DR Congo
Ivory Coast 2-2 Tunisia
Tunisia 1-0 Madagascar
DR Congo 2-0 Congo
Madagascar 1-3 Ivory Coast
Congo 1-2 Tunisia

Group E

It looks like a straight fight so far between Guinea and South Africa, but the former are likely to rue dropping two points to Malawi.

That 1-1 draw in Conakry represented the first points dropped by Guinea in three games after they thumped Zimbabwe 3-0 and then won 3-2 in Burkina Faso.

South Africa are difficult to bet against, although they struggled to see off Burkina Faso, being unable to add to an early Shaun Bartlett goal.

1 Guinea P3 GD 7-3 Pts 7;2 South Africa P2 GD 3-0 Pts 6; 3 Malawi P2 GD 2-2 Pts 2; 4 Burkina Faso P3 GD 3-5 Pts 1; 5 Zimbabwe P2 GD 0-5 Pts 0

Previous results
Malawi 1-1 Burkina Faso
Guinea 3-0 Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe 0-2 South Africa
Burkina Faso 2-3 Guinea
South Africa 1-0 Burkina Faso
Guinea 1-1 Malawi