Somalia drew 0-0 with 10-man Ethiopia in their World Cup qualifier in neutral Djibouti on Saturday as the last two of Africa’s 22 lowest-ranked teams began their quest to qualify for football’s 2014 showpiece in Brazil
Ranked way down at No. 192 of 208 international teams, Somalia couldn’t make a man advantage tell at the end after a red card for Ethiopia on 60 minutes.
Although Ethiopia is now favorite in the first-round contest with its home leg to come, the lowly Somali team needs just a scoring draw in Addis Ababa next week to progress to the main African qualifying competition and take its place alongside the continent’s big-name teams.
The East African countries met in Djibouti because of the security situation in the troubled Somali capital Mogadishu.
(Al Ahram)
