The 2018 African Nations Championship, known as the 2018 CHAN for short and for sponsorship purposes as the Total African Nations Championship, was the 5th edition of the biennial association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) featuring players from their respective national leagues. Originally supposed to be hosted in Kenya, it was instead hosted by Morocco from 13 January to 4 February 2018.

The 2016 finalists, DR Congo and Mali, failed to qualify for this edition following their qualification losses, Mali losing 3–2 to Mauritania on aggregate and DR Congo losing to the neighbouring Congo via the away goals rule. Hosts Morocco defeated Nigeria 4–0 in the final to win their first title which made Morocco the first team to win the tournament on home soil.

Host selection Following the conclusion of the final of the previous edition in Rwanda on 7 February 2016, CAF announced Kenya as the host nation of the next edition 48 hours later. However, CAF decided to change the host nation on 23 September the following year due to a lack of progress with preparations and open up a new tender process for a replacement team with the deadline of 30 September 2017. The countries who submitted to replace Kenya as hosts are:

(selected as hosts)

The Ethiopian Football Federation did not provide the government's letter of guarantee and were not considered; the CAF Emergency Committee decided on 15 October that year to choose Morocco over Equatorial Guinea.

Qualification

The qualification rounds took place from 20 April to 20 August 2017.

Since Morocco had already qualified in the Northern Zone before replacing Kenya as hosts, their spot in the main phase was re-allocated to their opponents in the Northern Zone final qualifying round, Egypt. However, Egypt declined to participate citing a "congested domestic calendar". As a result, the spot was reverted to Central-East Zone (as originally three teams would participate including original-turned-stripped hosts Kenya), and would go to the winner of a play-off in November 2017 between Ethiopia and Rwanda, the two teams which lost in the Central-East Zone final qualifying round.

Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the group stage of this edition of the tournament:

Team ZoneAppearance Previous best performance FIFA rankingat start of event Central Zone 3rd (2011, 2016) 45 2nd (2014) 96 1st 146 Central-East Zone 3rd (2016) 113 2nd (2011) 136 4th (2011, 2014, 2016) 75 North Zone 3rd (2014) 88 (hosts) 3rd (2014) 40 South Zone 3rd (2011) 141 1st 118 3rd (2009) 74 West A Zone 2nd (2016) 65 2nd (2014) 99 West B Zone 2nd (2014) 44 4th (2016) 61 3rd (2014) 51

Venues This edition of the tournament had matches held in Casablanca, Marrakesh, Agadir and Tangier.

CasablancaMarrakeshStade Mohamed VStade de MarrakechCapacity: 45,600Capacity: 45,240TangierAgadirIbn Batouta StadiumStade AdrarCapacity: 45,000Capacity: 45,480

Before Kenya was stripped of its hosting rights, its football association planned to use 4 stadiums for this edition of the tournament. However, only Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi and Kasarani Stadium in Kasarani were considered to meet hosting requirements after inspections by CAF, while Mombasa Municipal Stadium in Mombasa and Kinoru Stadium in Meru did not.

Squads

The squads of the participating teams each consisting of 23 players per the tournament's regulation article 72 were announced by CAF on 10 January 2018.

Match officials A total of 32 match officials (16 referees and 16 assistant referees) were selected for this edition of the tournament, of which 7 were selected to operate the video assistant referee (VAR) system in a CAF competition for the first time ever, beginning at the knockout stages.

Draw The draw for the group stage was held at Sofitel Rabat in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on 17 November 2017 at 19:30 WET (UTC±0).

The teams were drawn into 4 groups of 4. The hosts Morocco were seeded in Group A. The remaining teams were seeded based on their results in the four most recent editions of the tournament: 2009 (multiplied by 1), 2011 (multiplied by 2), 2014 (multiplied by 3), 2016 (multiplied by 4): 7 points for winner 5 points for runner-up 3 points for semi-finalists 2 points for quarter-finalists 1 point for group stage

Based on the formula above, the 4 pots were allocated as follows:

Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4

Group stage The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage.

Tiebreakers Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 74): Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams wrre still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WET (UTC±0).

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage From this stage onward, the video assistant referee (VAR) system made its debut in a CAF competition. Extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used if necessary to decide the winner, except for the third-place match, where a penalty shoot-out but no extra time was used if necessary to decide the winner, per the competition's regulations article 75.

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

Goalscorers 9 goals Ayoub El Kaabi

3 goals

Saleh Al Taher Augustine Mulenga

2 goals

Walid El Karti Zakaria Hadraf Junior Makiesse Gabriel Okechukwu Anthony Okpotu Walaa Eldin Musa Seif Teiri Lazarous Kambole

1 goal

Job Vá Mohamed Sydney Sylla Patrick Moussombo Carof Bakoua Kader Bidimbou Amor Saïdouba Bissiri Camara Sékou Amadou Camara Ibrahima Sory Sankhon Salem Ablo Elmutasem Abushnaf Zakaria Alharaish Abdulrahman Khalleefah Achraf Bencharki Ismail Haddad Salaheddine Saidi Vetunuavi Hambira Absalom Iimbondi Panduleni Nekundi Rabiu Ali Sunday Faleye Dayo Ojo Thierry Manzi Omer Suleiman Derrick Nsibambi Fackson Kapumbu

Awards The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: Total Man of the Competition Ayoub El KaabiTop Scorer Ayoub El Kaabi CAF Fair Play Team

Team of the Tournament Goalkeeper Defenders Midfielders Forwards Akram El Hadi Substitutes: Anas Zniti (Morocco), Sand Masaud (Libya), Vá (Angola), Bader Hasan (Libya), Augustine Mulenga (Zambia), Saifeldin Bakhit (Sudan), Ismail El Haddad (Morocco)

Man of the match Stage Team 1 Result Team 2 Man of the Match First round of group stage matchesGroup A 4–0 Abdelilah Hafidi 1–2 Saifeldin Malik BakhitGroup B 0–1 Vetunuavi Hambira 3–1 Lazarous KamboleGroup C 3–0 Saleh Al Taher 0–0 Djihad BizimanaGroup D 0–0 Vá 0–1 Prestige MboungouGroup A 3–1 Ayoub El Kaabi 1–0 Omer Suleiman KokoGroup B 0–2 Augustine Mulenga 0–1 Lloyd KazapuaGroup C 0–1 Stephen Eze 1–0 Thierry ManziGroup D 1–0 Vá 2–0 Junior MakiesseGroup A 0–0 Akram El Hadi Salim 0–1 Ibrahima Sory SankhonGroup B 0–0 Kouamé N'Guessan 1–1 Teberius LombardGroup C 0–1 Elmutasem Abushnaf 1–3 Dayo OjoGroup D 0–0 Francoeur Baron Kibamba 1–1 Wend-Panga Bambara Knockout stage matchesQuarter-finals 2–0 Salaheddine Saidi 0–1 Mohamed Hashim 2–1 (a.e.t.) Ikechukwu Ezenwa 1–1 (a.e.t.)(3–5 p) Abdulrahman KhalleefahSemi-finals 3–1 (a.e.t.) Ayoub El Kaabi 0–1 Gabriel OkechukwuThird place match 1–1(2–4 p) Muhannad El TahirFinal 4–0 Zakaria Hadraf

Tournament team rankings

References

External links (archived) at CAFOnline.com