The next step for the elminated teams: Group A

Over the next four posts we look at the prospects of the eight teams now departed from the African Cup of Nations after falling at the group stage.

Group A

Morocco

The Moroccans went home with its pride crushed after defeat to Guinea and a limp performance against hosts Ghana in the deciding game.

The good fortune that found the net twice for Morocco in the Guinea defeat completely disappeared against Ghana as the Lions of Atlas were kept at bay.

Youssouf Hadji failed to provide an attacking spark while Marouane Chamakh’s aerial presence was completely under-utilised.

Despite scoring a hat-trick in the opening game against Namibia, Soufiane Alloudi was barely sighted again.

At the back Michael Basser was regularly exposed, while goalkeeper Khalid Fouhami was left embarrassingly flat-footed by a set-piece both against Guinea and Ghana.

A positive was the mobility of tall forward Tarik Sekitoui, but his running and work on the ball exacerbated the lack of contribution from his midfield.

World Cup qualification prospects:

Morocco should stroll through to the final group stage with Ethiopia, Rwanda and Mauritania in its first group.

However the final group stage could be a rude wake-up call much like this Cup of Nations if concentration doesn’t return to the defence.

If the final groups are sorted by geography it’s hard to see Morocco getting past Tunisia. If the groups drawn randomly then there is a decent chance that the Lions of Atlas can turn around this poor tournament and get back on the world stage for the first time since 1998.

Namibia

After the death of coach Ben Bamfuchile in the lead up to the tournament Namibia showed great resilience and character to perform the way it did in two of the Cup of Nations games.

Forget the 5-1 against Morocco, it was the marked improvement in the 1-0 defeat to Ghana and 1-1 draw with Guinea that offered Namibia hope.

Brian Brendell scored his team’s only two goals of the tournament but also torched a host of chances against Ghana.

If teams do not take Namibia seriously and press forward they do leave themselves open to the counter attack.

But without an end product, the slick passing moves Namibia exposed Ghana with a number of times will be useless in future games.

Should Arie Schans stay in charge, the Namibians stand a chance of returning to Angola in 2010 a more competitive team.

World Cup qualification prospects:

The reason Namibia stands a chance of returning to the Cup of Nations is its mid-strength World Cup qualifying group featuring Guinea, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

This group may well be a close one and while that leaves top spot up for grabs, it also reduces the chances of second place being one of the best eight runners-up.

The start is key to Namibia; beat Kenya at home and Zimbabwe away to open the group and it takes all the momentum into back-to-back matches against Guinea.