# 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Arabic: كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023, French: Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football des moins de 20 ans 2023), known as the 2023 U20 AFCON or 2023 AFCON U20 for short and as the 2023 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, was the 17th edition (24th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football. Egypt hosted the tournament, which took place from 19 February to 11 March 2023. The tournament involved 12 teams, Senegal won the tournament for the first time, defeating Gambia in the final and did not concede a single goal the entire tournament.
This edition of the tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina where teams who reached the semi-finals stage qualified automatically and also for the 2023 African Games in Accra, Ghana where teams who reached the quarter-finals stage qualified automatically too.
Ghana were the defending champions following their 4th title win in 2021, but failed to qualify for this edition after losing to Nigeria in the WAFU sub-regional qualification tournament.

## Qualification
### Player eligibility

Players born 1 January 2003 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

### Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages:
| Team | Zone | Date of qualification | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
| Egypt (hosts) | North Zone | 16 May 2021 | 12th | 2017 | Champions (1991, 2003, 2013) |
| Tunisia | North Zone | 24 October 2022 | 2nd | 2021 | Fourth place (2021) |
| Benin | West B Zone | 17 May 2022 | 3rd | 2013 | Third place (2005) |
| Nigeria | West B Zone | 17 May 2022 | 12th | 2019 | Champions (2005, 2011, 2015) |
| Senegal | West A Zone | 9 September 2022 | 6th | 2019 | Runners-up (2015, 2017, 2019) |
| Gambia | West A Zone | 9 September 2022 | 4th | 2021 | Third place (2007, 2021) |
| Central African Republic | Central Zone | 14 December 2022 | 2nd | 2021 | Quarter-finals (2021) |
| Congo | Central Zone | 14 December 2022 | 3rd | 2015 | Champions (2007) |
| Uganda | Central-East Zone | 8 November 2022 | 2nd | 2021 | Runners-up (2021) |
| South Sudan | Central-East Zone | 8 November 2022 | 1st | None | Debut |
| Mozambique | South Zone | 14 October 2022 | 2nd | 2021 | Group stage (2021) |
| Zambia | South Zone | 14 October 2022 | 8th | 2017 | Champions (2017) |

## Venues

| CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | Cairo | Ismailia |
| CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | Cairo International Stadium | Suez Canal Stadium |
| CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | Capacity: 75,000 | Capacity: 22,000 |
| Alexandria ||
| CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | Haras El Hodoud Stadium | Alexandria Stadium |
| CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | CairoAlexandriaIsmailia | Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 20,000 |

## Match officials

On 18 February 2023, CAF announced a total of 16 referees (including 2 women), 18 assistant referees (including 4 women) and 6 video assistant referees (VAR) appointed for the tournament.
Referees
* Issa Mouhamed
* Hamidou Diero
* Mohamed Athoumani
* Yannick Kabanga Malala
* Clement Franklin Kpan
* Mohamed Diraneh Guedi
* Mahmoud Ahmed Nagy
* Lamin Jammeh
* Ahmed Abdulrazg
* Sory Ibrahima Keita
* Jallal Jayed
* Bouchra Karboubi
* Omar Abdulkadir Artan
* Jean-Claude Ishimwe
* El Hadj Amadou Sy
* Akhona Makalima
Assistant referees
* Hamza Bouzit
* Pascal Ndimunzigo
* Styven Moutsassi
* Yara Atef
* Mohamed Abouzid Sami Halhal
* Yehualashet Fasika Biru
* Roland Nii Dodoo
* Joel Wonka Doe
* Dimbiniaina Andriatianarivelo
* Fanta Idrissa Kone
* Fatiha Jermoumi
* Soukaina Hamdi
* Abdoul Aziz Moctar Saley
* Igho Hope
* Shaji Padayachy
* Omer Hamid Mohamed Ahmed
* Jonathan Ahonto Koffi
* Mohamed Bakir
Video assistant referees
* Elvis Noupoue
* Mahmoud Ashour
* Ahmed Elghandour
* Daniel Nii Laryea
* Dahane Beida
* El Hadj Malick Samba

## Draw

The draw for the group stage was held at CAF's headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on 23 December 2022 at 19:00 EST (UTC+2). The 12 teams were drawn into 3 groups of 4 with the teams seeded according to their performance in the previous edition of the tournament. Hosts Egypt automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
| Egypt (hosts) Uganda (2) Gambia (3) | Tunisia (4) Central African Republic (8) Mozambique (11) | Nigeria (NR) Zambia (NR) Senegal (NR) Benin (NR) Congo (NR) South Sudan (NR) |

## Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals along with the two best 3rd-placed teams.

### Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13).
* 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 are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are 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 in EST (UTC+2).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Senegal | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | +8 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Nigeria | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Egypt (H) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 1 | |
| 4 | Mozambique | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 1 | |
* 1 2 Drawing of lots: Egypt 1; Mozambique 2

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Uganda | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Congo | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | South Sudan | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 4 | Central African Republic | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 | |
* 1 2 Drawing of lots: Uganda 1; Congo 2'"`UNIQ--ref-00000064-QINU`"'

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Gambia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Tunisia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Benin | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 | Knockout stage |
| 4 | Zambia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 | |

### Ranking of third-placed teams

| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | B | South Sudan | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | C | Benin | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | A | Egypt | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 1 | |

## Knockout stage

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 2 March – Cairo | 2 March – Cairo | | | |
| Senegal | 1 | | | |
| Senegal | 1 | 6 March – Suez | 6 March – Suez | | |
| Benin | 0 | 6 March – Suez | 6 March – Suez | |
| Benin | 0 | Senegal | 3 | |
| 3 March – Cairo | 3 March – Cairo | | Senegal | 3 | |
| 3 March – Cairo | 3 March – Cairo | Tunisia | 0 | |
| Congo | 3 (4) | Tunisia | 0 | |
| Congo | 3 (4) | | | | 11 March – Cairo | 11 March – Cairo |
| Tunisia (p) | 3 (5) | | | | 11 March – Cairo | 11 March – Cairo |
| Tunisia (p) | 3 (5) | | | | Senegal | 2 |
| 3 March – Alexandria | 3 March – Alexandria | | | | | Senegal | 2 |
| 3 March – Alexandria | 3 March – Alexandria | | | | Gambia | 0 |
| Gambia | 5 | | | | Gambia | 0 |
| Gambia | 5 | 6 March – Cairo | 6 March – Cairo | | | |
| South Sudan | 0 | 6 March – Cairo | 6 March – Cairo | | | |
| South Sudan | 0 | Gambia | 1 | | | |
| 2 March – Suez | 2 March – Suez | | Gambia | 1 | | | |
| 2 March – Suez | 2 March – Suez | Nigeria | 0 | | Third place | Third place |
| Uganda | 0 | Nigeria | 0 | | Third place | Third place |
| Uganda | 0 | | | | 10 March – Cairo | 10 March – Cairo |
| Nigeria | 1 | | | | 10 March – Cairo | 10 March – Cairo |
| Nigeria | 1 | | | | Tunisia | 0 |
| | | | | | Nigeria | 4 |

### Quarter-finals

Winners qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

### Final
## Goalscorers

There were 54 goals scored in 26 matches, for an average of 2.08 goals per match.
5 goals
* Pape Diop
4 goals
* Déo Bassinga
* Adama Bojang
2 goals
* Alagie Saine
* Ibrahim Muhammad
* Jude Sunday
* Lamine Camara
* Pape Amadou Diallo
* Souleymane Faye
* Paul America
* Jibril Othman
1 goal
* Rodolfo Aloko
* Boris Gbenou
* Josna Loulendo
* Arnauvy Mombouli
* Prince Soussou
* Mahmodou Bajo
* Kajally Drammeh
* Moses Jarju
* Ahmed Abdullahi
* Solomon Agbalaka
* Samson Lawal
* Mamadou Lamine Camara
* Samba Diallo
* Ibou Sané
* Samy Chouchane
* Mohamed Dhaoui
* Ali Saoudi
* John Paul Dembe
* Saidi Mayanja
* Isma Mugulusi
* Titus Ssematimba
* Kingston Mutandwa
* Rickson N'gambi
1 own goal
* Tamimou Ouorou (against the Gambia)
* Ibrahim Juma (against Nigeria)

## Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
* Player of the Tournament
* Lamine Camara
* Top Scorer
* Pape Diop
* (5 goals)
* Best Goalkeeper
* Landing Badji
* Best Coach
* Malick Daf ( Senegal)
* CAF Fair Play Team
* Nigeria

### Team of the Tournament

| Goalkeeper | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards |
| Landing Badji | Augustine Njoku Seydou Sano Alagie Saine Solomon Agbalaka | Pape Diop Lamine Camara Prince Soussou | Adama Bojang Deogracias Bassinga Rogers Mugisha |

## Qualified teams for the FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup |
| Senegal | 2 March 2023 | 3 (2015, 2017, 2019) |
| Nigeria | 2 March 2023 | 12 (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019) |
| Gambia | 3 March 2023 | 1 (2007) |
| Tunisia | 3 March 2023 | 2 (1977, 1985) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

## Qualified teams for the 2023 African Games

The following teams qualified for the 2023 African Games men's football tournament in Accra, Ghana.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in African Games |
| Ghana | Host nation | 7 (1973, 1978, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019) |
| Nigeria | 25 February 2023 | 7 (1973, 1978, 1991, 1995, 2003, 2015, 2019) |
| Senegal | 25 February 2023 | 5 (1987, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2019) |
| Congo | 26 February 2023 | 4 (1965, 1973, 1995, 2015) |
| South Sudan | 26 February 2023 | 0 (debut) |
| Uganda | 26 February 2023 | 4 (1965, 1991, 1999, 2011) |
| Benin | 27 February 2023 | 0 (debut) |
| Gambia | 27 February 2023 | 0 (debut) |
| Tunisia | 27 February 2023 | 3 (1987, 1991, 2007) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.