The 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification was a men's under-20

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competition which decided the participating teams for the

2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations The 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations was the 16th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (23rd edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Foo ...

. Players born 1 January 2001 or later were eligible to participate in the competition. A total of twelve teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

who qualified automatically as hosts.

Teams

47 of the 54 CAF members entered the qualifying tournament of their zone, including the hosts Mauritania, which also participated in qualification despite automatically qualified for the final tournament. This was the first edition in Africa U-20 Cup of Nations to have expanded to 12 teams instead of eight. Each of the six zones received two spots in the final tournament. ;Notes *Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament. *(H): Qualifying tournament hosts *(Q): Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of qualification results

Schedule

The qualifying competition was split into regional competitions, with the teams entering the qualifying tournament of their zone. The final arrangements of the zonal qualifiers were decided later due to the delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The schedule of each qualifying zone was as follows.

North Zone

Tunisia hosted the 2020 UNAF U-20 Tournament, which also served as the qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, between 15 to 27 December 2020. The matches were played at

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). The draw for the fixtures was held on 30 November 2020. The five teams were placed in one group, with the winners and the runners-up qualifying for the final tournament. All times are local,

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West A Zone

Senegal hosted the WAFU-UFOA Zone A U-20 Championship between 20–29 November 2020. The matches were played at

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Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 6 November 2020. The seven teams were drawn into two groups of three and four teams. The winners and the runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Final

Winner qualified for

West B Zone

The WAFU-UFOA Zone B qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were initially planned to be hosted by Burkina Faso, but were later shifted to Togo due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the matches scheduled to be played between 18 November–2 December. On 7 November, Togo announced that they would not be able to host the tournament due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the country, with the outbreak located in the

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

area. On 17 November, it was announced that the regional qualifiers would now be played in Benin between 5 and 19 December. The draw was also announced on the same day. The matches were played at

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Stade Charles de Gaulle Stade Charles de Gaulle is a multi-use stadium in Porto-Novo, Benin named after Charles de Gaulle. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is used as the home stadium of AS Dragons FC de l'Ouémé The Association Sportive Drag ...

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( Stade René Pleven). All times are local,

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Group stage

The seven teams were drawn into two groups of three and four teams. The winners and the runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

Third place match

Final

Central Zone

The

UNIFFAC The Central African Football Federations' Union (french: Union des Fédérations de Football d'Afrique Centrale; pt, União das Federações Centroafricanas de Futebol; es, Unión de Federaciones de Fútbol de África Central), officially abbrevi ...

qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were held in Equatorial Guinea between 15–22 December 2020. The matches were played at

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Estadio de Malabo Estadio de Malabo is a multi-purpose stadium in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. It is currently used mostly for football matches. Overview The stadium holds 15,250 and opened in 2007. It is currently the home ground of the Equatorial Guinea national ...

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Group stage

The six teams were drawn into two groups of three teams. The winners of each group qualified for the

Group A

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Group B

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Final

Central-East Zone

The

CECAFA The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations ( sw, Baraza la Mashirikisho ya Mpira wa Miguu Afrika Mashariki na Kati, french: Conseil des Associations de Football d'Afrique de l'Est et Centrale, ar, مؤتمر جمعيات شر� ...

qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were initially planned to be hosted by Sudan in October–November 2020 but were then later shifted and held in Tanzania between 22 November–2 December 2020. The matches were played at

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Group stage

All the 11 teams were drawn into 3 groups, 2 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams. The winners of each group and the best runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Ranking of second-placed teams

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

Third place match

Final

South Zone

The

COSAFA Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (french: Conseil des Associations de Football en Afrique Australe; pt, Conselho das Associações de Futebol da África Austral), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the footbal ...

qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were initially planned to be hosted by Mauritius, but were later shifted to South Africa after Mauritius withdrew as hosts due to the COVID-19 regulations. The matches were played at

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Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a soccer and rugby union stadium in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, It hosted 2010 FIFA World Cup matches and the third place play off. It is the home of Chippa United Football Club and formerly of r ...

). All times are local,

SAST South African Standard Time (SAST) is the time zone used by all of South Africa as well as Eswatini and Lesotho. The zone is two hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+02:00) and is the same as Central Africa Time. Daylight saving time is not observed in e ...

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Group stage

The group stage was played in 3 groups as a round-robin, where the group winners and the best runner up advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Ranking of second-placed teams

Due to groups having a different number of teams, the results against the fourth-placed teams in four-team groups were not considered for this ranking.

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

Third place match

Final

Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualify for the final tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification 2021 U-20 Championship qualification

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