2019 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2019 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations was the 15th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (22nd edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. In May 2015, it was decided that the tournament would be hosted by Niger.

The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland as the CAF representatives. Mali won their first title, while the other qualified teams which finished second to fourth were Senegal, South Africa and Nigeria. Defending champions Zambia failed to qualify.

Qualification
The qualifiers were played between 30 March and 12 August 2018. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Niger.

Player eligibility
Players born 1 January 1999 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams
The following eights teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1991.

Venues
The matches were played in two venues:

Squads
Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players.

Draw
The draw of the final tournament was held on 13 December 2018, 21:00 WAT (UTC+1), at the Centre Technique de La Fenifoot in Niamey. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The hosts Niger were seeded in Group A and allocated to position A1, while 2017 runners-up Senegal were seeded in Group B and allocated to position B1 (2017 champions Zambia did not qualify). The remaining six teams were seeded based on their results in the 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (final tournament and qualifiers), and drawn to any of the remaining three positions in each group.

Match officials
A total of 12 referees and 12 assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.

Referees
 * 🇧🇮 Pacifique Ndabihawenimana (Burundi)
 * 🇨🇲 Antoine Effa (Cameroon)
 * 🇩🇯 Souleiman Ahmed Djama (Djibouti)
 * 🇪🇬 Amin Mohamed Amin Mohamed Omar (Egypt)
 * 🇰🇪 Peter Waweru (Kenya)
 * 🇲🇱 Boubou Traoré (Mali)
 * Imtehaz Heeralall (Mauritius)
 * Ali Mohamed Moussa (Niger)
 * 🇷🇼 Jean Claude Ishimwe (Rwanda)
 * 🇸🇴 Hassan Mohamed Hagi (Somalia)
 * Kokou Ntalé (Togo)
 * 🇹🇳 Haythem Guirat (Tunisia)

Assistant Referees
 * Abdoulaziz Yacouba (Niger)
 * Jospin Luckner Malonga (Central African Republic)
 * 🇪🇬 Samir Gamal Saad Mohamed (Egypt)
 * 🇬🇼 Firmino Bassafim (Guinea-Bissau)
 * Lionel Hasinjarasoa (Madagascar)
 * Fabien Cauvelet (Mauritius)
 * 🇲🇦 Mustapha Akerkad (Morocco)
 * 🇳🇦 Mathew Kanyanga (Namibia)
 * Abdoul Aziz Moctar Saley (Niger)
 * 🇸🇴 Hamza Hagi Abdi (Somalia)
 * 🇺🇬 Dick Okello (Uganda)
 * 🇪🇹 Samuel Temesgin Atango (Ethiopia)

Group stage
The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 71):
 * Tiebreakers
 * 1) Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 2) Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 3) Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 4) 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;
 * 5) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 6) Goals scored in all group matches;
 * 7) Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WAT (UTC+1).

Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out (no extra time) is used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 72).

Goalscorers

 * 3 goals


 * 🇸🇳 Youssouph Mamadou Badji
 * 🇸🇳 Amadou Dia N'Diaye


 * 2 goals


 * 🇬🇭 Daniel Lomotey
 * 🇲🇱 Mamadou Traoré


 * 1 goal


 * 🇧🇫 Abdoul Tapsoba
 * 🇧🇮 Saidi Irakoze
 * 🇧🇮 Bienvenue Kanakimana
 * 🇧🇮 Jules Ulimwengu
 * 🇲🇱 Boubacar Traoré
 * 🇲🇱 Hadji Dramé
 * Kairou Amoustapha
 * Boubacar Goumey
 * Mahamadou Sabo
 * Issah Salou
 * 🇳🇬 Ibrahim Alhassan
 * 🇳🇬 Paschal Durugbor
 * 🇳🇬 Maxwell Effiom
 * 🇳🇬 Nazifi Yahaya
 * 🇸🇳 Samba Diallo
 * 🇸🇳 Dion Lopy
 * 🇸🇳 Faly Ndaw
 * 🇸🇳 Ousseynou Niang
 * Luke Le Roux
 * Siphesihle Mkhize


 * 1 own goal


 * Givemore Khupe (against Senegal)

Awards

 * Top scorer
 * 🇸🇳 Amadou Dia N'Diaye


 * Player of the tournament
 * 🇸🇳 Moussa N'Diaye


 * Fair Play Award

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup
The following four teams from CAF qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.


 * 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.