This article details the qualification schedule and matches for the

2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations The 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 4th edition of the quadrennial African association football, football tournament organized by the ...

. Players born 1 January 2001 or later were eligible to participate in the competition. A total of 8 teams, including automatically qualified hosts

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 ...

, qualified to play in the group stages of this edition of the tournament, which also doubled as the first stage of the African qualification for the 2024 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in France.

Teams

Apart from Morocco, the remaining 53 CAF members were eligible to enter qualification and a total of 38 national teams entered its draw which was announced on 18 August 2022. Eighteen best teams from the previous edition and its qualification procedures were given a bye to the second round. ;Did not enter * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Format

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away,

two-legged In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum of ...

basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg,

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

was applied and if still tied,

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

(no

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 ...

) was used to determine the winner.

Schedule

All matches were played during the FIFA International Window and its schedules were as follows:

First round

''Niger won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Tanzania won 3–3 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Eswatini won 3–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Togo won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''DR Congo won 1–0 on aggregate, but later got disqualified and had its result forfeited for fielding ineligible players. Although Ethiopia advanced to the final round, they chose not to compete and thus Algeria advanced in their place.'' ---- ''Mozambique won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Burkina Faso won 2–2 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Rwanda won 4–4 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Madagascar won 12–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Angola won 8–1 on aggregate.''

Second round

''Niger won 1–1 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Sudan won 3–3 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Nigeria won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Egypt won 1–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Zambia won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''South Africa on 2–2 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Congo won 2–2 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''DR Congo won 5–4 on aggregate but was later disqualified, thus Algeria advanced to the final round.'' ---- ''Ghana won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Senegal won 5–3 on penalties and advanced to the final round.'' ---- ''Mali won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Gabon won 5–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Cameroon won 3–2 on aggregate.''

Third round

Winners qualified for the

''Niger won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Guinea won 2–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Egypt won 2–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Congo won 1–1 on aggregate via the away goals rule.'' ---- ''Ghana won 2–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Mali won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Gabon won 7–6 on penalties after a 1–1 draw on aggregate.''

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the

. :

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

Goalscorers

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualification, 2023 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations U-23 Cup of Nations qualification