The next step for the eliminated quarter-finalists

We look at how the four latest teams to depart the Africa Cup of Nations performed and their prospects of heading to Angola 2010 and the World Cup in South Africa around six months later.

Manager Berti Vogts has been the most under-fire boss of any at this Cup of Nations and is the key to Nigeria’s next step.

Sunday Oliseh is already putting pressure on for the job according to the BBC, while Nigeria’s ruthless press were highly critical of German Vogts both during and after the tournament.

So much so that his dark past as manager of Scotland rated a frequent mention as the Super Eagle scribes bemoaned his alleged destruction of a talented line-up.

Opening the tournament with two scoreless games meant Nigeria never really had the right combination up front.

After scraping past Benin they still lacked the cutting edge up forward after John Mensah was sent off for Ghana and Nigeria held the man advantage.

Whether a new manager decides to discard the veteran names in the team could shape Nigeria’s future.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Nigeria should stroll through to the second group stage of qualifying as it is paired with South Africa in group 4.

It means the Super Eagles only need to beat Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone to ensure progression to the next stage of qualifying.

However the group should not be taken lightly – the immediate step up in difficulty in the four-team, only-top qualifies second stage will pit Nigeria against the big guns.

With a team unity rebuilt, Nigeria easily has the talent to qualify for the World Cup, but leadership and a clear strategy is needed at the top.

Guinea’s embarrassing exit from the Cup of Nations will overshadow its fighting performance against Ghana and win over Morocco.

Pascal Feindouno is essential to any hope Guinea has of scoring goals and the rest of the team showed no indication that the skipper is anything other than a once-in-a-generation player.

While Ivory Coast was expected to win comfortably, the worst result for Guinea was arguably the draw with Namibia.

World Cup qualification prospects:

If anything because of the momentum it will give Namibia ahead of playing the Guineans again in World Cup and African Nations qualifying for 2010.

Guinea is pitted against Zimbabwe, Namibia and Kenya in a group looking destined for evenness.

As only eight of the 11 best second-placed teams go through, Guinea may well need to win the group to see the next group stage.

Guinea starts at home to Zimbabwe and is away to Kenya a week later.

Make it through this group and Guinea will do well to finish in the top three of the next stage of qualifying and go to Angola in 2010.

Don’t consider them any chance to make it to South Africa.

Angola was the statistical surprise packet of the tournament but will still feel unlucky to have gone home at the quarter-final stage.

The Palancas Negras had never won a game in Cup of Nations competition or made the knock-out stages, so in many ways this was a tournament of achievement.

But the team on the park has every right to leave disappointed and feeling it could have gone further.

Manucho was the stand-out for Angola, with him in this form at the 2006 World Cup Angola could well have made it out of their group.

Now his high-profile move to Manchester United (via Panathinaikos initially) could be the development he needs to become world class.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Angola is automatically qualified to host the 2010 Cup of Nations as host, but unlike Egypt in 2006 will want a World Cup to look forward too as well.

Getting there should not prove too difficult for Angola provided its organised defence sees off Uganda, Niger and Benin in the first group stage.

How close it goes to the elusive top spot (of four) at the next stage of qualifying to get a spot in South Africa depends largely on how much improvement is left in Manucho.

The better he gets, the more attention he will command to free up the likes of Flavio and Ze Kalanga – the players that along with Akwa got Angola to Germany 2006 – in order to provide multiple goal-scoring threats.

The writing was on the wall for Tunisia after it scraped qualification for Ghana after losing to Sudan.

Improve the backline or face more embarrassment and frustration with the leaking of goals.

Sure enough, the Tunisians could not clamp down on Senegal, let in a soft consolation against South Africa and blew all the momentum it took into extra-time as Cameroon scored against the run of play.

Roger Lemerre has spent what is considered a lifetime at one African team (six years) with Tunisia, and the Frenchman may have reached the end of his tether.

But while speculation over his future remains dormant, how he rebuilds his backline with or without Radhi Jaidi will be the key to the Carthage Eagles’ future.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Tunisia’s fantastic record of qualifying for World Cups may at last be in jeopardy as the stakes are raised for South Africa 2010.

Burkina Faso, Burundi and Seychelles will not provide any stern opposition in the first group stage, but the second group stage will have the Tunisians scrambling.

Sort the groups geographically and the Tunisians will likely be facing familiar rivals Morocco and Algeria in order to qualify.