Morocco fans celebrate during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Africa Cup of Nations 2019: How the last 16 places are decided
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations has 16 places up for grabs in the first knockout rounds. Here’s how it works.
Morocco fans celebrate during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations is in full swing. It’s been a wild round for the first round of group matches. Two more rounds remain, and teams have it all to play for as we go around again.
Even for the teams who lost their opening fixture (we’re looking at you, South Africa) there is still a chance to qualify.
Here’s a breakdown of how the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations works and how the last 16 teams are decided.
Africa Cup of Nations 2019: Group stage basics
Each one of the 24 teams who qualified for the tournament were seeded according to their world rankings and then divided into groups of four.
Each team plays the other three in its group once with three points awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss
Africa Cup of Nations 2019: How the last 16 are decided
Who goes through to the last 16
The winners and runners-up in each group and the best four third-place teams – a total of 16 – qualify for the second round.
The first part is pretty simple and works as usual: points and goal difference. The rest is a bit more complicated.
Tiebreakers for teams level on points
Decided as follows:
1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all the head-to-head criteria, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams
1. Goal difference in all group matches
2. Goals scored in all group matches
3. Drawing lots
Keep up with all the latest standings, fixtures and results from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations group stages.
Fixtures, teams and results for all groups
