2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations
كأس الأمم الأفريقية تحت 23 سنة 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Morocco
Dates	24 June – 8 July
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Morocco (1st title)
Runners-up	Egypt
Third place	Mali
Fourth place	Guinea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	39 (2.44 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Emmanuel Yeboah; Yanis Begraoui; Abde Ezzalzouli; (3 goals each)
Best player(s)	Ibrahim Adel
Best goalkeeper	Hamza Alaa
Fair play award	Guinea
	← 2019 2027 →

The 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 4th edition of the quadrennial African football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its male national teams consisting of players under 23 years of age. It was held in Morocco between 24 June and 8 July 2023.^[2]^[3] It was the second time that Morocco hosted the tournament, as they were the inaugural hosts back in 2011.

The finalists and third-place playoff winner of this edition of the tournament qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Paris while the 4th-placed team will play the AFC–CAF playoff to decide the final Olympic slot.

Egypt were the defending champions, but failed to defend their title after a 2–1 loss to hosts Morocco in the final, although both were guaranteed qualification to the Olympic football tournament alongside Mali who won their third-place match against Guinea, who would later also qualify for the Olympics after emerging victorious in the playoff against the 4th-placed team from Asia, Indonesia. With the win, Morocco repeated the feat achieved at the 2018 African Nations Championship by hosting and winning a tournament at the same time.

Qualification

Morocco qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining 7 spots were determined by the qualifying rounds which took place on a home-and-away two-legged basis from 21 September 2022 to 28 March 2023.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the group stage.

Team	Date of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Morocco (hosts)	7 July 2022	2nd	2011	Runners-up (2011)
Egypt	26 March 2023	4th	2019	Champions (2019)
Congo	27 March 2023	1st	None	Debut
Gabon	28 March 2023	2nd	2011	Champions (2011)
Ghana	28 March 2023	2nd	2019	Fourth place (2019)
Guinea	28 March 2023	1st	None	Debut
Mali	28 March 2023	3rd	2019	Group stage (2015, 2019)
Niger	28 March 2023	1st	None	Debut

Venues

The matches were contested at two venues; the Ibn Batouta Stadium in Tangier and the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.

Tangier	Rabat
Tangier Rabat
Ibn Batouta Stadium	Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium
Capacity: 65,000	Capacity: 53,000

Squads

Draw

The draw was held on 5 May 2023 at 17:00 CET (UTC+1) at the Mohammed VI Football Academy in Salé.^[4] The 8 teams were drawn into two groups of four teams, with hosts Morocco seeded in Group A (position A1) and the defending champions Egypt seeded in Group B (position B1). The remaining 6 teams were allocated to two pots based on the results of the previous tournament edition and were drawn to the remaining positions.

Seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2
Morocco (position A1) Egypt (position B1)	Ghana Mali	Congo Gabon Guinea Niger

Match officials

Referees

Clement Franklin Kpan
Mahmoud Nagy
Pierre Ghislain Atcho
Jalal Jayed
Omar Abdulkadir Artan
Abongile Tom
Adalbert Diouf
Youcef Gamouh
Patrice Mebiame
Lamin Jammeh
Muhammad Elmabrouk

Assistant Referees

Stephen Yiembe
Joel Wonka Doe
Sami Halal
Styven Moutsassi
Abdessamad Abertoune
Wael Hannachi
Adel Abane
Jhonathan Ahonto Koffi
Dimbiniaina Andriatianarivelo
Youssef Mahmoud
Igho Hope
Hamza Naciri

Video Assistant Referees

Maria Rivet
Mohamed Hussien
Dahane Beida
Letticia Antonella Wiana
Mustapha Ghorbal
Haytem Guirat
Peter Waweru
Adil Zourak

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points; 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss. If tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 68):^[5]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

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

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco (H)	3	3	0	0	8	2	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Guinea	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4	Advance to knockout stage
3	Ghana	3	1	1	1	5	8	−3	4
4	Congo	3	0	0	3	3	7	−4	0

Source: Soccer24
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

24 June 2023