2018 World Cup: Five facts from Africa qualifiers

Five facts about 2018 World Cup Africa zone group qualifying ahead of fixtures between Friday and Tuesday:


– Morocco trounced Mali 6-0 in Rabat for the biggest victory and Ghana hammered Congo 5-1 in Brazzaville for the widest away winning margin.
– There have been two hat-tricks during the group phase and both came from midfielders — Thomas Partey of Ghana and Youssef Msakni of Tunisia.
– A total of 116 goals have been scored in 49 mini-league matches at an average of 2.3 per match, compared with 2.5 in two earlier home-and-away qualifying rounds.

– The most common score in the group phase has been 2-1 with nine instances, followed by 0-0 (eight), 1-0 (seven), 2-0 (six) and 1-1 (five).
– Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria are the leading scorers with 11 goals from five matches and Mali the least prolific with just one in 450 minutes of play.