The 2015 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations was the 2nd edition of the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, the quadrennial international age-restricted

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

championship organised by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF) for the men's under-23 national teams of Africa. The tournament started on 28 November and finished on 12 December 2015. A total of eight teams are playing in the tournament. The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

between 5–19 December 2015. However, CAF changed the hosts and requested

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

to host the tournament instead, and the tournament dates were also changed. On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee decided to change the name of the tournament from the CAF U-23 Championship to the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, similar to the senior's version,

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

. Same as the previous edition, the tournament acted as the CAF qualifiers for the Olympic football tournament. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Brazil as the CAF representatives.

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

won the tournament with a 1–0 final win over

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. Both finalists and third-placed

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

qualified for the Olympics.

Qualification

Senegal qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from April to August 2015.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Defending champions

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

failed to qualify after they lost to

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

Venues

The tournament was held in two venues.

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each squad could contain a maximum of 21 players.

Match officials

A total of 10 referees and 13 assistant referees were selected. ;Referees *Redouane Jiyed (

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

) *Juste Ephrem Zio ( Burkina Faso) *Joshua Bondo (

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

) *Mehdi Abid Charef (

) *Hudu Munyemana (

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

) *Antoine Effa (

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

) *Hamada Nampiandra (

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

) *Bienvenu Sinko ( Ivory Coast) *Malang Diedhiou (

) *Youssef Essrayri (

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

) ;Assistant referees *Jerson dos Santos (

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

) *Arsenio Marengula (

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

) *Eldrick Adelaide (

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

) *Drissa Kamory Niare (

) *Berhe O. Michael (

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

) *Yahaya Mahamadou (

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

) *Mark Sonko (

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

) *Samba Malik (

) *Elmoiz Ali Mohamed Ahmed (

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

) *Mahmoud Ahmed Abo el Regal (

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

) *Issa Yaya (

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

) *Oliver Safari ( DR Congo) *Sidiki Sidibe (

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

)

Group stage

The draw for the final tournament of the competition took place on 14 September 2015, 11:00

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

, at the CAF headquarters in Cairo. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four. For the draw, the hosts Senegal were seeded in position A1 and the previous tournament's best-placed qualified team Egypt were seeded in position B1. The remaining six teams were drawn from one pot to fill the other positions in the two groups. The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals. ;Tiebreakers The teams were ranked according to

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

(3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order: #Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned; #

Goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

in games between the teams concerned; #Goals scored in games between the teams concerned; #If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply; #Goal difference in all games; #Goals scored in all games; #Drawing of lots. All times were local, GMT (

UTC±0 UTC+00:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +00:00. This time zone is the basis of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and all other time zones are based on it. In ISO 8601, an example of the associated time would be written as 2069-0 ...

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time,

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

would be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by

kicks from the penalty mark In association football, a penalty shoot-out (previously known as kicks from the penalty mark) is a tie-breaking method to determine which team is awarded victory in a match that cannot end in a draw, when the score is tied after the normal tim ...

to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time would be played.

Bracket

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. ----

Third place play-off

Winner qualified for

Final

Winners

Final ranking

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in

are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Qualified teams for Olympics

The following three teams from CAF qualified for the Olympic football tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. ''Italic'' indicates host for that year. Statistics include all Olympic format (current Olympic under-23 format started in 1992).

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: *Most Valuable Player: Azubuike Okechukwu *Top Scorer: Etebo Oghenekaro – 5 goals *Best Goalkeeper: Abdelkader Salhi *Fair Play:

Goalscorers

;5 goals * Etebo Oghenekaro ;2 goals *

Zinedine Ferhat Zinedine Ferhat (; born 1 March 1993) is an Algerian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for French club Angers and the Algeria national team. Club career USM Alger On 19 November 2011, with the new coach Didier Ollé-Nicolle Fer ...

* Junior Ajayi * Mouhamadou Diallo * Ibrahima Keita * Menzi Masuku * Gift Motupa * Haythem Jouini ;1 goal * Mohamed Benkhemassa * Oussama Chita * Oussama Darfalou * Mamdouh Elsayed * Kahraba *

Ramadan Sobhi Ramadan Sobhi Ramadan Ahmed (; born 23 January 1997) is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Egyptian Premier League club Pyramids. Sobhi began his career with the leading Egyptian club Ahly SC of Cairo, making his pr ...

Souleymane Coulibaly Souleymane Coulibaly (born 26 December 1994) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a striker for English non-league club Pickering Town. Early life As a 13-year-old, Coulibaly emigrated to Italy to avoid conflict in Ivory Coast. ...

Abdoulaye Diarra Abdoulaye Diarra (born 12 October 1986) is an Ivorian footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for Liga IV side CS Vladimriescu. Diarra grew up at Inter Milan and played at senior level for Maribor, Bohemians Prague and Viktorie Jir ...

Adama Niane Adama Niane may refer to: * Adama Niane (footballer) Adama Niane (born 16 June 1993) is a Malian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for the I League club Gokulam Kerala FC, Goku ...

* Mohammed Usman * Ibrahima Diédhiou *

Sidy Sarr Sidy Sarr (born 5 June 1996) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Championnat National club Épinal. He has played for the Senegal national team. Club career In September 2018, Sarr joined Lorient on l ...

Phumlani Ntshangase Phumlani Nkosinathi Ntshangase (born 24 December 1994) is a South African soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Highbury. International career Ntshangase was called up to the senior South Africa squad for the 2016 COSAFA Cup. Honours ; ...

* Ronald Kampamba * Paul Katema * Conlyde Luchanga ;1 own goal *

Youssouf Traoré Youssouf Traoré (born 29 January 1991) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for JA Drancy La Jeanne d'Arc de Drancy are a French football club based in Drancy, a suburb of Paris. The club was founded in 1903. As o ...

(playing against Algeria) * Oduduwa Segun Tope (playing against Algeria)

References

External links

U-23 Africa Cup Of Nations
CAFonline.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Africa U-23 Cup of Nations 2015

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

U-23 Cup of Nations

Caf CAF or caf may refer to: Armed forces *Canadian Armed Forces (Canadian Forces), the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy *Canadian Air Force, now the Royal Canadian Air Force *Republic of China Air Force, the air force of the Republic of China (Tai ...

2015 in Senegalese sport International association football competitions hosted by Senegal