By Harry Awurumibe At the end of the African preliminary stage of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 competition, West African countries have shown that they are a force to reckon with in African football.
No fewer than 9 West African nations qualified for the group stage leaving 11 spots for the rest of North, South, Central and Eastern regions of the African continent.
Oil-rich Gabon was the first West African nation to book her ticket to the Group Stage and the next 24 hours saw 7 others to qualify in grand style.
Expectedly, Nigeria and arch-rivals Ghana and Cote d’ lvore qualified alongside Mali, Guinea, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Meanwhile the tiny lsland of Cape Verde of the coast of West Africa again showed her stuff by joining the big boys in the race for the five African tickets to Russia 2018 fiesta.
North Africa placed a distant second position with five countries booking their tickets for the Group Stage.
The five qualified nations are Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya.
Central African region produced Cameroun, Congo Brazzaville and DR Congo while South African region will be represented by Republic of South Africa and Zambia.
East Africa produced only Uganda.
