Angola may qualify even not winning

Ahead over Saturday's game in Kigali, Rwanda, Angola's national team of football may still make it to the World Cup of Germany next year, thanks to the playoff system adopted for the qualifiers.

Angolan official news agency Angop quoted FIFA competition regulations as saying that, in case of a tie between two or more teams in the last round, the winner is determined from the results of the playoffs between the sides tied up.

The African group IV, led by Angola with 18 points, might resort to this system of decision, should Zimbabwe (15 points) beat Nigeria (18) and the group leader lose to Rwanda in the last round match of today in Kigali.

Should this be the scenario, three teams, Angola, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, would be found tied up with 18 points each and Angola would be picked out as winner of the group, thanks to their relative advantages in the light of the said regulations.

Angola scored seven points in matches against the opponents. They beat Nigeria (1-0) in Luanda and drew (1-1) in the second leg match in Kanu, thus totalling four points, against one of the opponents.

As to Zimbabwe, the 1-0 win in Luanda and defeat (0-2) in Harare, enabled Angola to sum up three points.

In their turn, Nigeria got one point from Angola and three from Zimbabwe, ending up tied up with four points, should they lose today`s match. On the other hand, the most Zimbabwe can afford to reach is six points (one less than Angola), thanks to a draw in previous games with each of their group IV opponents.

Thus, the standing would be as follow: Angola (07 points), Zimbabwe (6) and Nigeria (4).

Therefore, against the first item of the playoff system, Angola might still qualify, even losing today's match in Kigali, should Nigeria be defeated.

Another scenario that would favour Angola's qualification, should they not win today's game, would be a draw in Kigali and another one in Abuja today, which would keep the standing as it is now, with Angola in the lead.

In order to reach Germany 2006, Nigeria depend on a positive result (victory or draw) in the game against the Warriors, aided by a win by Rwanda. But Zimbabwe are definitely out of the race, no matter what result of their today's game.

Source: Xinhua