The final ten ties in the first round of African qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ concluded on Tuesday.

Malawi, Djibouti and Zimbabwe all won their ties by one-goal margins against Botswana, Eswatini and Somalia respectively, making for several dramatic finishes.

Gerald Phiri's cooly-dispatched late penalty saw Malawi through in what set a new national record of three successive clean sheets in World Cup preliminaries.

Djibouti saw out a tense, goalless second leg lacking in clear-cut chances to advance thanks to their 2-1 victory in the sides’ first meeting. The visitors will participate in the second round for just the second time, having avoided defeat in an away World Cup qualifier for the first time – this after six straight defeats on the road.

After 77 minutes of Somalia stoutly resisting Zimbabwe attacks, four goals in some crazy closing stages settled this thrilling encounter in the hosts’ favour. Khama Billiat’s unstoppable stoppage-time effort – fired left-footed into the top-right corner – ended the hopes of the lowest-ranked team involved in Africa’s Qatar 2022 qualifiers. The dramatic winner ended a run of 11 World Cup qualifiers without a win for Zimbabwe.

Mozambique, Angola, Togo, Rwanda, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and Sudan had an easier time of it as they all booked their spots in the next round.

Rwanda's 10-0 aggregate victory over Seychelles was by far the most lopsided of all the ties in Round 1. Meanwhile, it was a historic evening on home soil for Guinea-Bissau. They advanced to the second round for the first time ever, steering past Sao Tome e Principe 2-1 in the return leg.