# 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

This article details the qualification schedule and matches for the 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations.
Players born 1 January 2001 or later were eligible to participate in the competition. A total of 8 teams, including automatically qualified hosts Morocco, 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.
| Main tournament edition hosts | Bye to second round (18 teams) | First round entrants (20 teams) |
| Morocco | Algeria  Benin  Cameroon  Congo  Egypt  Gabon  Ghana  Guinea  Ivory Coast  Mali  Nigeria  Senegal  Sierra Leone  South Africa  Sudan  Tunisia  Uganda  Zambia | Angola  Botswana  Burkina Faso  DR Congo  Eswatini  Ethiopia  Gambia  Guinea-Bissau  Libya  Madagascar  Mauritania  Mauritius  Mozambique  Namibia  Niger  Rwanda  Seychelles  South Sudan  Tanzania  Togo |

### Did not enter

* Burundi
* Cape Verde
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Comoros
* Djibouti
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Kenya
* Lesotho
* Liberia
* Malawi
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Somalia
* Zimbabwe

## Format

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away, two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, away goals rule was applied and if still tied, penalty shoot-out (no extra time) was used to determine the winner.

## Schedule

All matches were played during the FIFA International Window and its schedules were as follows:
| Round | Leg | Date |
| First round | First leg | 19–27 September 2022 |
| First round | Second leg | 19–27 September 2022 |
| Second round | First leg | 22–23 October 2022 |
| Second round | Second leg | 29–30 October 2022 |
| Third round | First leg | 22–28 March 2023 |
| Third round | Second leg | 22–28 March 2023 |

## First round

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Guinea-Bissau | 2–4 | Niger | 0–0 | 2–4 |
| Tanzania | 3–3 (a) | South Sudan | 0–0 | 3–3 |
| Eswatini | 3–2 | Botswana | 2–0 | 1–2 |
| Mauritania | 1–2 | Togo | 1–0 | 0–2 |
| Ethiopia | 0–1 | DR Congo | 0–0 | 0–1 |
| Mozambique | 5–1 | Mauritius | 3–0 | 2–1 |
| Burkina Faso | 2–2 (a) | Gambia | 0–1 | 2–1 |
| Libya | 4–4 (a) | Rwanda | 4–1 | 0–3 |
| Madagascar | 12–1 | Seychelles | 5–0 | 7–1 |
| Angola | 8–1 | Namibia | 2–1 | 6–0 |
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

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Niger | 1–1 (a) | Ivory Coast | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| Sudan | 3–3 (a) | Benin | 2–0 | 1–3 |
| Tanzania | 1–3 | Nigeria | 1–1 | 0–2 |
| Guinea | w/o | Uganda | — | — |
| Eswatini | 0–1 | Egypt | 0–0 | 0–1 |
| Sierra Leone | 1–2 | Zambia | 1–1 | 0–1 |
| Togo | 2–2 (a) | South Africa | 2–2 | 0–0 |
| Congo | 2–2 (a) | Tunisia | 1–0 | 1–2 |
| DR Congo | w/o | Algeria | — | — |
| Mozambique | 1–4 | Ghana | 1–2 | 0–2 |
| Burkina Faso | 0–0 (3–5 p) | Senegal | 0–0 | 0–0 |
| Rwanda | 1–2 | Mali | 1–1 | 0–1 |
| Madagascar | 0–5 | Gabon | 0–1 | 0–4 |
| Angola | 2–3 | Cameroon | 2–3 | 0–0 |
Notes:
* ↑ Guinea won on a walkover after Uganda withdrew from the competition.'"`UNIQ--ref-000000D3-QINU`"'
* ↑ DR Congo originally won the tie, but were later disqualified after competing in the second round for fielding ineligible players. Algeria advanced to the final round.'"`UNIQ--ref-000000D5-QINU`"'
* ↑ Algeria won on a walkover after Ethiopia withdrew from the competition.'"`UNIQ--ref-000000D7-QINU`"''"`UNIQ--ref-000000D8-QINU`"'
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 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Niger | 2–1 | Sudan | 0–0 | 2–1 |
| Nigeria | 0–2 | Guinea | 0–0 | 0–2 |
| Egypt | 2–0 | Zambia | 2–0 | 0–0 |
| South Africa | 1–1 (a) | Congo | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Algeria | 1–2 | Ghana | 1–1 | 0–1 |
| Senegal | 3–4 | Mali | 3–1 | 0–3 |
| Gabon | 1–1 (7–6 p) | Cameroon | 1–0 | 0–1 |
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 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous U-23 Africa Cup of Nations appearances |
| Morocco (hosts) | 7 July 2022 | 1 (2011) |
| Egypt | 26 March 2023 | 3 (2011, 2015, 2019) |
| Congo | 27 March 2023 | 0 (debut) |
| Gabon | 28 March 2023 | 1 (2011) |
| Ghana | 28 March 2023 | 1 (2019) |
| Guinea | 28 March 2023 | 0 (debut) |
| Mali | 28 March 2023 | 2 (2015, 2019) |
| Niger | 28 March 2023 | 0 (debut) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

## Goalscorers

There were 133 goals scored in 60 matches, for an average of 2.22 goals per match.
4 goals
* Arnaud Randrianantenaina
* Kairou Amoustapha
3 goals
* Chemseddine Bekkouche
* Daniel Afriyie
* El Hadari Raheriniaina
2 goals
* Mohamed Islam Belkhir
* Bito
* Capita
* Zini
* Ivan Ndjantou
* Gloire Bassinga
* Jonathan Ikangalombo
* Emmanuel Ovono
* Abdul Fatawu Issahaku
* Mamadi Camará
* Nour al-Din Al-Qulaib
* Zidane Sidat
* Salam Boulhassane
* Success Makanjuola
* Clément Niyigena
* Ally Msengi
* Kevin Laba
1 goal
* Benarfa
* Benvindo Afonso
* Picas
* Melono Dala
* Boladji Abdou
* Gaël Dassi
* Soumaïla Hounkpè
* Tawana Mbakile
* Tefo Molefe
* Kouamé Botué
* Cyrille Dao
* Etienne Eto'o
* Djawal Kaiba
* Love Bissila
* John Bakata
* Akram Bongonga
* Gloire Mujaya
* Patient Mwamba
* Ibrahim Adel
* Abdelrahman Atef
* Osama Faisal
* Bongiswa Dlamini
* Neliswa Dlamini
* Sambulo Simelane
* Ben Kabinambele
* Hants Mbenga
* Jeremie Moussango
* Yohann Nkoghe
* Mamadou Bâ
* Momodou Bojang
* Sylvester Simba
* Algassime Bah
* Alseny Soumah
* Seydou Traoré
* Fadel Salama
* Ali Yousef
* Joël Jinidy
* Kalvin Paul
* Lalane Randrianandrasana
* Claude Ratsimbazafy
* Hamidou Diallo
* Thiemoko Diarra
* Ahmed Diomandé
* Kamory Doumbia
* Mamadou Sangare
* Kalifa Traoré
* Sidi Ahmed Mohamed El Abd
* David Aristide
* Gaby
* Ivan
* Gianluca Lorenzoni
* Horácio Vilanculos
* Gonzales Tsuseb
* Abdoul Rachid Amoumane
* Abiodun Ogunniyi
* Ashraf Kamanzi
* Prince Rudasingwa
* Mamadou Lamine Camara
* Ibrahima Dramé
* Abdallah Sima
* Affandi Aboudou
* Alie Conteh
* Ashley Cupido
* Thapelo Maseko
* Antonio van Wyk
* Rahan Angier
* Dani Lual
* Joseph Malish
* Ali Abdalah
* John Manu
* Al-Jezoli Nouh
* Kelvin John
* Abdul Sopu
* Bruno Avotor
* Aboudou Wetchire
* Adem Garreb
* Hamdi Labidi
* Joshua Mutale
* Andrew Phiri
1 own goal
* Pamphile Winsavi (against Sudan)
* Yoro Mamadou Diaby (against Rwanda)
* Graham Fauré (against Madagascar)