# 1965 African Cup of Nations

The 1965 African Cup of Nations was the fifth edition of the biennial African association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) hosted in Tunisia from 12 and 21 November 1965. This was the final edition of the tournament to be held in an odd-numbered year before 2013. The growing enthusiasm for the competition and the increasing number of participating teams led to an increase in the number of participants in the tournament, which rose from four to six teams.
Two of them qualified automatically, the host country Tunisia and the defending champion Ghana. A first round was determined by two groups of three teams, then the final (for the top teams in each group) and a third-place match for the teams that finished second.
Ethiopia is the only team to have participated in every edition of the Africa Cup of Nations since its inception. Egypt (twice winner in 1957 and 1959) refused to participate due to the diplomatic crisis with Tunisia. Sudan also failed to qualify after stumbling in the qualifiers. Congo-Léopoldville, Senegal and Ivory Coast are participating in the finals for the first time. Ghana retained its title, beating Tunisia in the final 3–2 after extra time. This was Ghana's second African championship title in two participations.

## Teams

Four places were available to the thirteen countries participating in these qualifications. Tunisia, the tournament organizer, and Ghana, the defending champion, qualified automatically.
Egypt qualified from Zone 1 after Morocco and Nigeria withdrew before the start of the qualifiers, but later withdrew due to the deterioration of its diplomatic relations with Tunisia after a speech given by Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba in Jericho in which he called on Arab countries to recognize Israel.
Sudan, called upon to take Egypt's place, declined the invitation: a single playoff match was then scheduled in Accra on 31 October between Congo-Léopoldville and Guinea.
However, Guinea withdrew shortly before this date; therefore, the playoff was scratched and Congo-Léopoldville qualified.

### Qualified teams

| Team | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | Finals appearance | Last appearance | Previous appearances in tournament |
| Tunisia | Hosts | | 3rd | 1963 | 2 (1962, 1963) |
| Ghana | Holders | 1 December 1963 | 2nd | 1963 | 1 (1963) |
| Ethiopia | 1st round winners | 18 April 1965 | 5th | 1963 | 4 (1957, 1959, 1962, 1963) |
| Senegal | 1st round winners | 5 May 1965 | 1st | None | 0 (debut) |
| Ivory Coast | 1st round winners | 5 September 1965 | 1st | None | 0 (debut) |
| Congo-Léopoldville | 1st round winners | 31 October 1965 | 1st | None | 0 (debut) |

#### Notes

* ↑ Bold indicates champion for that year, Italic indicates host.

## Venues

| Tunis | TunisSfaxSousseBizerte | Sfax |
| Chedly Zouiten Stadium | TunisSfaxSousseBizerte | Taieb Mhiri Stadium |
| Capacity: 20,000 | TunisSfaxSousseBizerte | Capacity: 11,000 |
| Sousse | TunisSfaxSousseBizerte | Bizerte |
| Bou Ali Lahouar Stadium | TunisSfaxSousseBizerte | Stade Ahmed Bsiri |
| Capacity: 6,500 | TunisSfaxSousseBizerte | Capacity: 2,000 |

## Group stage
### Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:
* Goal average in all group matches
* Drawing of lots

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Tunisia (H) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | — | 3 | Advance to final |
| 2 | Senegal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5.000 | 3 | Advance to third place play-off |
| 3 | Ethiopia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 0.111 | 0 | |
* 1 2 Tunisia progress on goal average.

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Ghana | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 3.000 | 4 | Advance to final |
| 2 | Ivory Coast | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1.000 | 2 | Advance to third place play-off |
| 3 | Congo-Léopoldville | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 0.250 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage
### Final

| GK | 1 | John Bortey Naawu |
| DF | 6 | Willie Evans |
| DF | 3 | Charles Addo Odametey (c) |
| DF | 8 | Sam Acquah |
| DF | 16 | Ben Kusi |
| MF | 7 | Oman Mensah |
| MF | 11 | Kofi Pare |
| MF | 17 | Kwame Nti |
| FW | 10 | Cecil Jones Attuquayefio |
| FW | 14 | Osei Kofi |
| MF | 15 | Frank Odoi |
| Substitutions: ||
| Manager: ||
| Charles Kumi Gyamfi ||
| GK | 1 | Sadok Sassi |
| DF | 2 | Mahfoudh Benzarti |
| DF | 3 | Hédi Douiri |
| DF | 4 | Mohsen Habacha |
| MF | 5 | Ahmed Lamine |
| MF | 6 | Abdelmajid Chetali (c) |
| MF | 8 | Tahar Chaïbi |
| MF | 16 | Moncef Ajel |
| FW | 7 | Aleya Sassi |
| FW | 9 | Rachid Gribaâ |
| FW | 12 | Salah Jedidi |
| Substitutions: ||
| FW | – | Abdelwahab Lahmar |
| Manager: ||
| Mokhtar Ben Nacef ||

## Goalscorers

There were 31 goals scored in 8 matches, for an average of 3.88 goals per match.
3 goals
* Eustache Manglé
* Ben Acheampong
* Osei Kofi
2 goals
* Pierre Kalala Mukendi
* Cecil Jones Attuquayefio
* Frank Odoi
* Louis Camara
* Matar Niang
* Tahar Chaïbi
1 goal
* Joseph Bléziri
* Konan Yoboué
* Luciano Vassallo
* Paa Nii Lutterodt
* Kwame Nti
* El Hadji Oumar Guèye
* Abdelmajid Chetali
* Mongi Delhoum
* Mohamed Salah Jedidi
* Abdelwahab Lahmar

## Tournament rankings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
| 1 | Ghana | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | +7 | 9 | Champions |
| 2 | Tunisia (H) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 4 | Runners-up |
| 3 | Ivory Coast | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 6 | 3rd place |
| 4 | Senegal | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 4 | 4th place |
| 5 | Congo-Léopoldville | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | −6 | 0 | Eliminated in the group stage |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 0 | Eliminated in the group stage |