Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026..
This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
the same stadium where it began.

The other games didn't really bring surprises. Uruguay, Colombia and Ecuador
remain consistent, Venezuela stays in the midst of the upper echeleons with
a fine away draw, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru again don't show much to
write home about.

Paraguay 0-1 Colombia

Colombia successfully defends their unbeaten run in this cycle at Defensores
del Chaco, Asunción. A penalty kick converted by Borré in the 10th minute
separated the two sides. Colombia made most of the play and could have widened
their advantage, but were largely stopped by Paraguayan keeper Carlos Coronel

Uruguay 3-0 Bolivia

A predictably easy win for Uruguay after a long attack vs defense drill at
Estadio Centenário, Montevideo. Darwin Nuñez added a further two goals to
his tally (14th and 70th minutes) and, between them, an own goal by Villamil
at the 39th.

Luis Suarez was subbed in when matters were already settled, and almost added
a fourth goal at the end of the game. Also, unlike what I said last round,
*this* was Marcelo Moreno's actual farewell game. The match against Peru was
actually his last home game for Bolivia.

Ecuador 1-0 Chile

A deserved win for Ecuador at Estadio Casa Blanca, in Quito. On the 20th
minute Angel Mena poached on a rebound by Chilean keeper Brayan Cortés,
after a strong long distance shot by wonderkid Kendry Paez. Ecuador created
more chances and deserved a higher win, but in the end were glad that Chile
blew a last minute opportunity to steal a very undeserved point.

Brasil 0-1 Argentina

69 years, 8 months, 7 days. That's the amount of time elapsed since March
14th, 1954, when Brasil beat Chile 1-0 at Maracanã in its first ever home
World Cup qualifier, until this match. Since then, Brasil built an unbeaten
run that lasted for 64 games, with 51 wins and 13 draws. That run came to an
end today, at the same stadium, and against the arch-rival.

Kickoff was delayed for about 30 minutes, due to incidents in the stands.
Fans were not properly separated, and a small fight broke out behind one of
the goals, due to an argument about the position of a banner (and also due
to some Brazilian fans having booed the Argentinian national anthem). Things
took a turn for the worse with the violent intervention of Rio de Janeiro
police, who distributed baton beatings and kicked Argentinian fans around
more or less randomly. Instead of lining up for kickoff, Argentinian players
ran to the stands to try to appease the fans, and Emiliano Martinez even
jumped to try to reach a particularly violent baton brandishing policeman.
Surreal stuff.

Meanwhile, Brazilian players just juggled with the ball on their side of the
pitch.

At some point Messi decided it was enough and led his team back to the dressing
rooms. Argentina took some 15 minutes there, waiting for the situation to calm
down. It was also reported that some players had family in that part of the
stands.

Eventually they returned to the pitch, and both sides kicked off a very tense
and chippy match. 22 fouls in the first half, 42 overall (26 by Brasil, 16 by
Argentina). Again Argentina didn't play particularly well and didn't create
many chances. Messi seemed uninspired and barely touched the ball. Otoh, Brasil
didn't play badly, but seemed to feel the weight of the match.

Overall, a close match, with a slight edge to the hosts. But the visitors were
quite far from harmless. Martínez made a couple of important saves at the 53rd
and 57th minutes to keep the floodgates from opening and, at the 62nd minute,
after a corner kick, Otamendi headed in the opener at Alisson's upper right
corner, way beyond the keeper's reach.

After the goal Brasil tried to pile up on the pressure, but seemed to become
increasingly nervous as time passed on and didn't really bother the Argentinian
goalkeeper anymore, while Argentina kept their cool and confidently held on..
Joelinton got red carded a few minutes after being subbed in for a foul on De
Paul; Brasil had already been lucky not to have Gabriel Jesus sent off in the
first half. On final whistle Argentinian players stayed on the pitch, celebrating
this historic victory with their fans.

In the end, a deserved victory for the incumbent World Cup winners. I wouldn't
say they played well, but they showed strength and resilience. As for Brasil,
there is a long, long way ahead. Plus, given the incidents involving police
and fans, some punishment from Conmebol or Fifa is in order as well.

And for another twist, in the post-match interview, Lionel Scaloni cast doubts
about whether he'll stay as manager of Argentina. "I must think about what I
should do. This is not a goodbye, but the bar is very high. This team needs
a coach with full energy and feeling well". No idea what he means, but I hope
it's not anything bad. He'll have at least a four-month break until Argentina's
next match (possibly some friendly in March?) to think it over.

Peru 1-1 Venezuela

Honours even at Estadio Nacional de Lima. Yotún scored Peru's first goal in
this cycle in the 17th minute, Savarino drew level at the 52nd. An appropriate
result for what appeared to be an even game, and not a bad result at all for
Venezuela. Let's see how far they go.

Table [points, games, w-d-l, gs-gc, gd, (mi = media inglese)]

1 Argentina 15 6 5 0 1 8-2 8+ (mi = +3)
2 Uruguay 13 6 4 1 1 13-5 8+ (mi = +1)
3 Colombia 12 6 3 3 0 6-3 3+ (mi = 0)
4 Venezuela 9 6 2 3 1 6-3 3+ (mi = -3)
5 Ecuador 8 6 3 2 1 5-3 2+ (mi = -1) (-3 points penalty)
6 Brasil 7 6 2 1 3 8-7 1+ (mi = -5)
-----------------------------
7 Paraguay 5 6 1 2 3 1-3 2- (mi = -7)
-----------------------------
8 Chile 5 6 1 2 3 3-7 4- (mi = -7)
9 Bolivia 3 5 1 0 5 4-14 10- (mi = -9)
10 Peru 2 6 0 2 4 1-8 7- (mi = -10)

The way things were scheduled, the WCQ was divided in three equal parts with
a lot of space between them: Rounds 1 to 6 in 2023 (September to November);
Rounds 7 to 12 in 2024 (again September to November); and Rounds 13 to 18 in
2025 (March, June and September)

So, next round is to be played 10 months from now, on September 5th, 2024.
It is hard to come up with a preview that early, who knows what each team's
form will look like by then, or even what each squad composition will look
like. Plus, there will also be a Copa America in the middle. I intend to
write up some preview when we're actually closer to the games.

But anyway, these will be Round 7 matches and, in brackets below, the results
of these games in the WCQ cycles of 2022/2018/ 2014/2010/2006/2002/1998 (all
the round robin ones so far):

Uruguay - Paraguay (0-0, 4-0, 1-1, 2-0, 1-0, 0-1, 0-2)

Peru - Colombia (0-3, 1-1, 0-1, 1-1, 0-2, 0-1, 1-1)

Brasil - Ecuador (2-0, 2-0, n/a, 5-0, 1-0, 3-2, n/a)

Bolivia - Venezuela (3-1, 4-2, 1-1, 0-1, 3-1, 5-0, 6-1)

Argentina - Chile (1-1, 1-0, 4-1, 2-0, 2-2, 4-1, 1-1)

Best regards,

Lléo

On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 6:53:18 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026.
> This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
> over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
> the same stadium where it began.

So the last two remaining streaks for WC qualifiers are Spain unbeaten at home, and
Germany still unbeaten away.

Ciao,
Werner

Werner Pichler escreveu:
> On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 6:53:18 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026.
> > This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
> > over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
> > the same stadium where it began.
>
> So the last two remaining streaks for WC qualifiers are Spain unbeaten at
> home, and Germany still unbeaten away.

Indeed. I had forgotten about those, so Brasil's streak was not exactly "The
Last of the Mohicans". I've had a look at them nonetheless, out of curiosity,
just to compare the numbers. As of now, if I haven't made any mistake, Spain's
run stands at 58 games, 48 wins, 10 draws, 162 goals scored, 27 conceded.

That means they can't reach Brasil's 64-game run in this cycle yet, since
they host at most what, 3 to 6 home games on the road to WC 2026? However,
beating Italy's 59 home games unbeaten run (48 wins, 11 draws, 147-29 goals
scored-conceded), which was stopped by North Macedonia in the last cycle, is
already within their reach. And, anyway, Spain's run seems to be the longest
"living" one, so to say.

Here is the list of games, and later a geographic breakdown:

----------------1954----------------
Spain 4-1 Turkey (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
----------------1958----------------
Spain 2-2 Switzerland (??, Madrid)
Spain 4-1 Scotland (??, Madrid)
----------------1962----------------
Spain 1-1 Wales (??, Madrid)
Spain 3-2 Morocco (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
----------------1966----------------
Spain 4-1 Ireland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
----------------1970----------------
Spain 1-1 Belgium (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 2-1 Yugoslavia (Camp Nou, Barcelona)
Spain 6-0 Finland (La Línea, Cadiz)
----------------1974----------------
Spain 2-2 Yugoslavia (??, Las Palmas)
Spain 3-1 Greece (??, Malaga)
----------------1978----------------
Spain 1-0 Yugoslavia (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 2-0 Romania (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
----------------1986----------------
Spain 3-0 Wales (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 1-0 Scotland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 2-1 Iceland (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
----------------1990----------------
Spain 2-0 Ireland (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Northern Ireland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Malta (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Hungary (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
----------------1994----------------
Spain 3-0 Albania (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 0-0 Ireland (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
Spain 5-0 Lithuania (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 3-1 Northern Ireland (Benito Villamarín, Sevilla)
Spain 1-0 Denmark (Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla)
----------------1998----------------
Spain 4-1 Slovakia (Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez, Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Spain 2-0 Yugoslavia (Mestalla, Valencia)
Spain 4-0 Malta (José Rico Pérez, Alicante)
Spain 1-0 Czech Republic (Nuevo Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid)
Spain 3-1 Faroe Islands (El Molinón, Gijón)
----------------2002----------------
Spain 2-0 Israel (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 5-0 Liechtenstein (José Rico Pérez, Alicante)
Spain 4-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Nuevo Carlos Tartiere, Oviedo)
Spain 4-0 Austria (Mestalla, Valencia)
----------------2006----------------
Spain 2-0 Belgium (El Sardinero, Santander)
Spain 5-0 San Marino (Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, Almería)
Spain 1-0 Lithuania (Mestalla, Valencia)
Spain 1-1 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Mestalla, Valencia)
Spain 1-1 Serbia & Montenegro (Vicente Calderón, Madrid)
Spain 5-1 Slovakia (Vicente Calderón, Madrid)
----------------2010----------------
Spain 1-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina (Nueva Condomina, Murcia)
Spain 4-0 Armenia (Carlos Belmonte, Albacete)
Spain 1-0 Turkey (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 5-0 Belgium (Riazor, A Coruña)
Spain 3-0 Estonia (Romano, Mérida)
----------------2014----------------
Spain 1-1 France (Vicente Calderón, Madrid)
Spain 1-1 Finland (El Molinón, Gijón)
Spain 2-1 Belarus (Iberostar, Palma de Mallorca)
Spain 2-0 Georgia (Carlos Belmonte, Albacete)
----------------2018----------------
Spain 8-0 Liechtenstein (Reino de León, León)
Spain 4-0 Macedonia (Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada)
Spain 4-1 Israel (El Molinón, Gijón)
Spain 3-0 Italy (Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid)
Spain 3-0 Albania (José Rico Pérez, Alicante)
----------------2022----------------
Spain 1-1 Greece (Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada)
Spain 3-1 Kosovo (La Cartuja, Sevilla)
Spain 4-0 Georgia (Nuevo Vivero, Badajoz)
Spain 1-0 Sweden (La Cartuja, Sevilla)

They spread these 58 games in 22 cities throughout 13 autonomous communities.
Here's a breakdown by city:

16 Sevilla
13 Madrid
4 Valencia
3 Gijón, Alicante
2 Albacete, Granada
1 A Coruña, Almería, Badajóz, Barcelona, Cádiz, Las Palmas, León, Málaga,
Mérida, Murcia, Oviedo, Palma de Mallorca, Santander, Santa Cruz de Tenerife,
Valladolid

And a breakdown by autonomous community:

21 Andalusia
13 Community of Madrid
7 Valencian Community
4 Asturias
2 Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castille and León, Extremadura
1 Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalunya, Galicia, Murcia

That is pretty much spread around, it seems. But this came from the 1998 cycle
onwards. Until 1994, over half WCQ's Spain hosted thus far had been in Sevilla.

Also interesting to note that Spain only ever played one World Cup Qualifier in
Barcelona (a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in 1969), and never in the Basque Country.
I imagine, though, that this might look different if we look also at ECQ's?
But anyway, in those, neither Spain's nor Germany's runs stands.

Now, just for completeness's sake let's have a look at Germany's run. In a sense
I find it even more impressive than Brasil's or Spain's, since those are away
games. Adding all up, it's been 50 games, 41 wins, 9 draws, 141 goals scored
and 37 conceded, against 29 teams across Europe. Here's the full list:

----------------1954----------------
Norway 1-1 West Germany
Saar 1-3 West Germany
----------------1962----------------
Northern Ireland 3-4 West Germany
Greece 0-3 West Germany
----------------1966----------------
Sweden 1-2 West Germany
Cyprus 0-6 West Germany
----------------1970----------------
Austria 0-2 West Germany
Cyprus 0-1 West Germany
Scotland 1-1 West Germany
----------------1982----------------
Bulgaria 1-3 West Germany
Albania 0-2 West Germany
Finland 0-4 West Germany
Austria 1-3 West Germany
----------------1986----------------
Malta 2-3 West Germany
Portugal 1-2 West Germany
Czechoslovakia 1-5 West Germany
Sweden 2-2 West Germany
----------------1990----------------
Finland 0-4 West Germany
Netherlands 1-1 West Germany
Wales 0-0 West Germany
----------------1998----------------
Armenia 1-5 Germany
Portugal 0-0 Germany
Albania 2-3 Germany
Ukraine 0-0 Germany
Northern Ireland 1-3 Germany
----------------2002----------------
England 0-1 Germany
Greece 2-4 Germany
Finland 2-2 Germany
Albania 0-2 Germany
Ukraine 1-1 Germany
----------------2010----------------
Liechtenstein 0-6 Germany
Finland 3-3 Germany
Wales 0-2 Germany
Azerbaijan 0-2 Germany
Russia 0-1 Germany
----------------2014----------------
Austria 1-2 Germany
Ireland 1-6 Germany
Kazakhstan 0-3 Germany
Faroe Islands 0-3 Germany
Sweden 3-5 Germany
----------------2018----------------
Norway 0-3 Germany
San Marino 0-8 Germany
Azerbaijan 1-4 Germany
Czech Republic 1-2 Germany
Northern Ireland 1-3 Germany
----------------2022----------------
Romania 0-1 Germany
Liechtenstein 0-2 Germany
Iceland 0-4 Germany
North Macedonia 0-4 Germany
Armenia 1-4 Germany

Germany's away win over Russia in the 2010 cycle is an interesting one, as
it broke another decades-long unbeaten home run. The old Soviet Union, which
played WC cycles from 1958 to 1990, also never lost a home match - and, in
their case, that invincibility was true for ECQ matches as well (EC cycles
from 1960 to 1992).

After the USSR dissolution, FIFA designated Russia as its successor. Though
Russia's run in ECQ's didn't last too long after that (lost to France at
home in EC 2000 qualifiers, and a handful more matches further down the line),
they managed to keep it alive in the WCQ for a while longer. This defeat to
Germany was the first and, as far as I could find, only Russian loss at home
in a WCQ match. Though, for bookkeeping purposes, technically one should probably
count the walk-over loss to Poland in the playoffs for WC 2022 too, I guess?

Just for kicks, here is the list of qualifying games played by the USSR.
To compare like with like, here are the totals:

WCQ's: 26 games, 24 wins, 2 draws, 64 goals scored, 6 conceded
ECQ's: 27 games, 21 wins, 6 draws, 71 goals scored, 17 conceded
Aggregate: 53 games, 45 wins, 8 draws, 135 goals scored, 23 conceded

On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 11:58:15 PM UTC-5, Lléo wrote:
> So, the USSR/Russian WCQ's home run adds up to 50 games, 42 wins, 8 draws,
> 119 goals scored and 14 conceded, until they met the away-unbeatable Germans
> at Luzhniki, on that fateful October 10th, 2009.

So it a case of an unstoppable force beating an unmovable object, or the other way around?
(I enjoyed reading this thread)

On Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 5:58:15 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> Werner Pichler escreveu:
> > On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 6:53:18 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > > Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026.
> > > This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
> > > over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
> > > the same stadium where it began.
> >
> > So the last two remaining streaks for WC qualifiers are Spain unbeaten at
> > home, and Germany still unbeaten away.
>
> Indeed. I had forgotten about those, so Brasil's streak was not exactly "The
> Last of the Mohicans". I've had a look at them nonetheless, out of curiosity,
> just to compare the numbers. As of now, if I haven't made any mistake, Spain's
> run stands at 58 games, 48 wins, 10 draws, 162 goals scored, 27 conceded.
>
> That means they can't reach Brasil's 64-game run in this cycle yet, since
> they host at most what, 3 to 6 home games on the road to WC 2026? However,
> beating Italy's 59 home games unbeaten run (48 wins, 11 draws, 147-29 goals
> scored-conceded), which was stopped by North Macedonia in the last cycle, is
> already within their reach. And, anyway, Spain's run seems to be the longest
> "living" one, so to say.
<snip>

> That is pretty much spread around, it seems. But this came from the 1998 cycle
> onwards. Until 1994, over half WCQ's Spain hosted thus far had been in Sevilla.

Never knew that. Obviously that was by design. To prevent

> Also interesting to note that Spain only ever played one World Cup Qualifier in
> Barcelona (a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in 1969), and never in the Basque Country.
> I imagine, though, that this might look different if we look also at ECQ's?
> But anyway, in those, neither Spain's nor Germany's runs stands.

What I find interesting is how much harder it apparently was to keep such a streak alive in Euro
qualifiers. If I'm not mistaken Spain's run ended already in 1979 (0-1 against Yugoslavia),
Italy's in 1983 (0-3 against Sweden in what must have been a terrible World Cup hangover),
(West) Germany's also in 1983 (0-1 against Northern Ireland).

> Now, just for completeness's sake let's have a look at Germany's run. In a sense
> I find it even more impressive than Brasil's or Spain's, since those are away
> games. Adding all up, it's been 50 games, 41 wins, 9 draws, 141 goals scored
> and 37 conceded, against 29 teams across Europe. Here's the full list:

<snip>

For completeness' sake the three home losses:

WC 1986 0-1 v Portugal (which condemned Sweden)
WC 2002 1-5 v England
WC 2022 1-2 v North Macedonia

> Germany's away win over Russia in the 2010 cycle is an interesting one, as
> it broke another decades-long unbeaten home run. The old Soviet Union, which
> played WC cycles from 1958 to 1990, also never lost a home match - and, in
> their case, that invincibility was true for ECQ matches as well (EC cycles
> from 1960 to 1992).
>
> After the USSR dissolution, FIFA designated Russia as its successor. Though
> Russia's run in ECQ's didn't last too long after that (lost to France at
> home in EC 2000 qualifiers, and a handful more matches further down the line),
> they managed to keep it alive in the WCQ for a while longer. This defeat to
> Germany was the first and, as far as I could find, only Russian loss at home
> in a WCQ match. Though, for bookkeeping purposes, technically one should probably
> count the walk-over loss to Poland in the playoffs for WC 2022 too, I guess?
>
> Just for kicks, here is the list of qualifying games played by the USSR.
> To compare like with like, here are the totals:
>
> WCQ's: 26 games, 24 wins, 2 draws, 64 goals scored, 6 conceded
> ECQ's: 27 games, 21 wins, 6 draws, 71 goals scored, 17 conceded
> Aggregate: 53 games, 45 wins, 8 draws, 135 goals scored, 23 conceded

Possibly the only aggregate World Cup *and* Euro qualifiers run of such length?

> Anyway, it seems like Brasil's 64-game unbeaten home run will remain as the
> longest of its kind for at least another WC cycle. Unless, of course, there's
> something else hidden in the vast world of CAF/AFC/CONCACAF/OFC that we're not
> aware of. I think I'll look it up sometime, not right now though, because this
> post is already long enough as it is :-)

Now one thing one could discuss is which run was 'tougher' in terms of opponents.
(a job for Futbolmetrix? :)
Brazil had to survive multiple matches against Argentina (until they didn't anymore), but
that only started after CONMEBOL changed their qualification procedure. Spain had Italy
and France as probably hardest opponents, but each one only once.

Ciao,
Werner

> Best regards,
>
> Lléo

On Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 2:26:24 PM UTC+1, Werner Pichler wrote:
> On Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 5:58:15 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > Werner Pichler escreveu:
> > > On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 6:53:18 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > >
> > > > Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026.
> > > > This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
> > > > over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
> > > > the same stadium where it began.
> > >
> > > So the last two remaining streaks for WC qualifiers are Spain unbeaten at
> > > home, and Germany still unbeaten away.
> >
> > Indeed. I had forgotten about those, so Brasil's streak was not exactly "The
> > Last of the Mohicans". I've had a look at them nonetheless, out of curiosity,
> > just to compare the numbers. As of now, if I haven't made any mistake, Spain's
> > run stands at 58 games, 48 wins, 10 draws, 162 goals scored, 27 conceded.
> >
> > That means they can't reach Brasil's 64-game run in this cycle yet, since
> > they host at most what, 3 to 6 home games on the road to WC 2026? However,
> > beating Italy's 59 home games unbeaten run (48 wins, 11 draws, 147-29 goals
> > scored-conceded), which was stopped by North Macedonia in the last cycle, is
> > already within their reach. And, anyway, Spain's run seems to be the longest
> > "living" one, so to say.
>
> <snip>
>
> > That is pretty much spread around, it seems. But this came from the 1998 cycle
> > onwards. Until 1994, over half WCQ's Spain hosted thus far had been in Sevilla.
>
> Never knew that. Obviously that was by design. To prevent

....accusations of favouritism between Madrid and Barcelona?

(I should learn to finish my sentences)

Ciao,
Werner

Werner Pichler escreveu:
> On Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 5:58:15 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > Werner Pichler escreveu:
> > > On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 6:53:18 AM UTC+1, Lléo wrote:
> > > > Conmebol qualifiers are now over one-third of the way to North America 2026.
> > > > This round saw the fall of The Last of the Mohicans, an unbeaten run spread
> > > > over seven decades broken at the derby of the continental heavyweights, in
> > > > the same stadium where it began.
> > >
> > > So the last two remaining streaks for WC qualifiers are Spain unbeaten at
> > > home, and Germany still unbeaten away.
> >
> > Indeed. I had forgotten about those, so Brasil's streak was not exactly "The
> > Last of the Mohicans". I've had a look at them nonetheless, out of curiosity,
> > just to compare the numbers. As of now, if I haven't made any mistake, Spain's
> > run stands at 58 games, 48 wins, 10 draws, 162 goals scored, 27 conceded.
> >
> > That means they can't reach Brasil's 64-game run in this cycle yet, since
> > they host at most what, 3 to 6 home games on the road to WC 2026? However,
> > beating Italy's 59 home games unbeaten run (48 wins, 11 draws, 147-29 goals
> > scored-conceded), which was stopped by North Macedonia in the last cycle, is
> > already within their reach. And, anyway, Spain's run seems to be the longest
> > "living" one, so to say.

Actually, I realized that I started counting from 1954 because that's when
South America first had an actual qualifying tournament. In the previous
cups it was attempted, but withdrawals meant automatic qualification for
the continent's representatives. That was not the case with Europe. But
adding the 1934, 1938 and 1950 cycles, though, doesn't change the numbers
very much. For Spain:

----------------1934----------------
Spain 9-0 Portugal (Nuevo Charmartín, Madrid)
----------------1950----------------
Spain 5-1 Portugal (Nuevo Chamartín, Madrid)

So, that makes it 60 games, 50 wins, 10 draws, 176 goals scored, 28 conceded,
and Spain can actually reach Brasil in this cycle already (maybe even surpass).

For Germany, we also add two games:

----------------1934----------------
Luxembourg 1-9 Germany
----------------1938----------------
Finland 2-4 Germany

This makes it 52 games, 43 wins, 9 draws, 154 goals scored, 40 conceded.

About Italy, I found out something I never knew about. They actually entered
qualification for WC 1934, which they hosted. On March 25th, 1934, Italy beat
Greece 4-0 at San Siro, and the Greeks declined to play the return fixture. I
imagine the WC host had been already picked by then, so that makes Italy (1)
the only team to have to qualify to a World Cup they hosted and (2) the only
team which could have missed a WC held in their own territory. That's a nice
bit of trivia.

They weren't made to play WCQ's for 1938 and 1950, though, so we add one game
to their run, which ended at 60 games, 49 wins, 11 draws, 151 goals scored and
29 conceded. So, Spain has already reached Italy.

> <snip>
> > That is pretty much spread around, it seems. But this came from the 1998 cycle
> > onwards. Until 1994, over half WCQ's Spain hosted thus far had been in Sevilla.
>
> Never knew that. Obviously that was by design. To prevent accusations of
> favouritism between Madrid and Barcelona?

It could be, given that there was a period they barely played in Madrid as well.
I've looked at Spain's ECQ venues, and Sevilla also was used in almost every
qualifier there from the 1984 to the 1996 cycles. It was in the mid-90's that
someone decided to spread the games around to the rest of the country.

But still, almost no games in Catalunya or the Basque Country. The only ones I
found held there were before the 1980's (two ECQ's in Bilbao and one in Barcelona).

> > Also interesting to note that Spain only ever played one World Cup Qualifier in
> > Barcelona (a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in 1969), and never in the Basque Country.
> > I imagine, though, that this might look different if we look also at ECQ's?
> > But anyway, in those, neither Spain's nor Germany's runs stands.
>
> What I find interesting is how much harder it apparently was to keep such a streak
> alive in Euro qualifiers. If I'm not mistaken Spain's run ended already in 1979
> (0-1 against Yugoslavia), Italy's in 1983 (0-3 against Sweden in what must have
> been a terrible World Cup hangover), (West) Germany's also in 1983 (0-1 against
> Northern Ireland).

Indeed. I wonder why that is. I mean, you're facing basically the same opponents.

> > Now, just for completeness's sake let's have a look at Germany's run. In a sense
> > I find it even more impressive than Brasil's or Spain's, since those are away
> > games. Adding all up, it's been 50 games, 41 wins, 9 draws, 141 goals scored
> > and 37 conceded, against 29 teams across Europe. Here's the full list:
> <snip>
>
> For completeness' sake the three home losses:
>
> WC 1986 0-1 v Portugal (which condemned Sweden)

The Battle of Stuttgart ("Batalha da Estugarda", to our Portuguese cousins)..
Reminds me of a post by Petrovich about it.

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.soccer/c/2Spx2w9IDEA/m/NZRGG46NWlcJ

I once watched the final 30 minutes or so in YouTube (can't find it anymore,
it was probably removed). I remember the Portuguese TV commentator could
barely take it anymore by the end of the game. To say it was one-sided traffic
after the goal is an understatement. Credit to Portugal for having held on.

> WC 2002 1-5 v England
> WC 2022 1-2 v North Macedonia

Heady days for North Macedonia, eh? First this, then Italy.

> > [SNIP]
> > Just for kicks, here is the list of qualifying games played by the USSR..
> > To compare like with like, here are the totals:
> >
> > WCQ's: 26 games, 24 wins, 2 draws, 64 goals scored, 6 conceded
> > ECQ's: 27 games, 21 wins, 6 draws, 71 goals scored, 17 conceded
> > Aggregate: 53 games, 45 wins, 8 draws, 135 goals scored, 23 conceded
>
> Possibly the only aggregate World Cup *and* Euro qualifiers run of such length?

I think so. And if we add their successor's run, until it broke at EC 2000 cycle:

-------------WC-1994----------------
Russia 1-0 Iceland
Russia 2-0 Luxembourg
Russia 3-0 Hungary
Russia 1-1 Greece
-------------EC-1996----------------
Russia 4-0 San Marino
Russia 0-0 Scotland
Russia 3-0 Faroe Islands
Russia 2-1 Greece
Russia 3-1 Finland
-------------WC-1998----------------
Russia 4-0 Cyprus
Russia 3-0 Luxembourg
Russia 2-0 Israel
Russia 4-2 Bulgaria
Russia 1-1 Italy

We reach 67 games, 56 wins, 11 draws, 168 goals scored, 29 conceded, until it
was stopped at Russia's very first home game of the qualifiers to Euro 2000.. A
2-3 loss to France at Luzhniki, on October 9th, 1998. Nice coincidence that it
was almost to the day the same date in which they'd lose their WCQ streak to
Germany 11 years later. Also, we see that adding Euro and World Cup cycles,
they actually surpass Brasil's run.

> > Anyway, it seems like Brasil's 64-game unbeaten home run will remain as the
> > longest of its kind for at least another WC cycle.

Correcting myself here: not necessarily so.

> > Unless, of course, there's
> > something else hidden in the vast world of CAF/AFC/CONCACAF/OFC that we're not
> > aware of. I think I'll look it up sometime, not right now though, because this
> > post is already long enough as it is :-)
>
> Now one thing one could discuss is which run was 'tougher' in terms of opponents.
> (a job for Futbolmetrix? :)
> Brazil had to survive multiple matches against Argentina (until they didn't anymore),
> but that only started after CONMEBOL changed their qualification procedure. Spain had
> Italy and France as probably hardest opponents, but each one only once.

That's a good one. In Brasil's case, I'd add Uruguay as another potential threat
to the run, in which case Brasil survived 10 games (ARG x4, URU x6). Only one of
which was before the format change, though.

Now I'm thinking how this could be done. Maybe having look at the opponent's Elo
Ratings? Futbolmetrix, help us out :-)

Best regards,

Lléo

On 23/11/2023 09:41, Futbolmetrix wrote:
> On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 11:58:15 PM UTC-5, Lléo wrote:
>
>> So, the USSR/Russian WCQ's home run adds up to 50 games, 42 wins, 8 draws,
>> 119 goals scored and 14 conceded, until they met the away-unbeatable Germans
>> at Luzhniki, on that fateful October 10th, 2009.
>
> So it a case of an unstoppable force beating an unmovable object, or the other way around?
> (I enjoyed reading this thread)

I don't know why, but I couldn't find the other posts from this thread
(the Conmebol WCQ one, I mean) via eternal-september. I can see in
Google Groups they're still "out there", but I can't reply to them from
there and can't see them here on Thunderbird. Oh well.

So, we were talking about unbeaten runs, in the context of Brasil's loss
to Argentina at Maracanã in November, which broke Brasil's 64-long
unbeaten home streak in WCQ. Werner mentioned that the remaining "live"
ones are Spain at home (now at 61* games) and Germany away (now at 53),
plus we had a look at Italy's recently broken one (at 59 games, by North
Macedonia in 2022), and the USSR/Russian case which also extend into
ECQ's, and could have been as high as 67 games, depending on how you
slice it (or 50, for WCQ's only).

At some point in the thread I wrote that I'd have a look for comparable
stuff in CAF/AFC/Concacaf/OFC. The "easy" ones to begin with seemed to
be OFC and Concacaf, with two clear dominating teams, historically:
Australia and Mexico.

No such luck in finding a "live" streak there, though, since both teams
have already had home losses. Australia's first was in 1977 (to Iran),
when their run was at a mere 12 games. But Mexico managed to pull a
rather long one, with a number of interesting facts along the way.

Mexico plays World Cup qualification since 1934, not entering this stage
in 1938 (withdrew), 1970 (hosts), 1986 (hosts) and 1990 (suspended by
FIFA). Until their 1-2 loss to Costa Rica at Estadio Azteca, on June
16th, 2001, their run was on 49 games, with 45 wins and 4 draws, 190
goals scored (almost 4 per game!) and 24 conceded.

Indeed, the first time they even dropped points at home was on October
27th, 1976, a 0-0 draw against Canada in Toluca, the 24th game of the
run. Until that point it was 23 wins in a row.

For comparison, Brasil's longest winning sequence was 15 in a row,
recently broken by the home draw against Venezuela in Cuiabá. Spain
pulled 16 in a row between 1992 and 2005. Italy had pulled 12 between
1997 and 2008. And of course, Germany's away run beats all these
numbers: they are currently on 20 away WCQ wins in a row.

However, these 23 wins in a row aren't even the Mexican record. After
the loss to Costa Rica that broke the streak, they won a further 24 home
WCQ games in a row. Then came three 0-0 home draws before their only
other home WCQ loss, again 1-2, this time to Honduras. Overall, they
played 95 home qualifiers, winning 81, drawing 12 and losing 2, with 303
goals scored and 43 conceded.

Here is their 49-game unbeaten run:

----------------1934----------------
Mexico 3-2 Cuba
Mexico 5-0 Cuba
Mexico 4-1 Cuba
----------------1950----------------
Mexico 6-0 United States
Mexico 2-0 Cuba
Mexico 6-2 United States
Mexico 3-0 Cuba
----------------1954----------------
Mexico 8-0 Haiti
Mexico 4-0 United States
Mexico 3-1 United States
----------------1958----------------
Mexico 6-0 United States
Mexico 3-0 Canada
Mexico 2-0 Costa Rica
----------------1962----------------
Mexico 7-0 Dutch Antilles
Mexico 4-1 Costa Rica
Mexico 1-0 Paraguay
----------------1966----------------
Mexico 3-0 Honduras
Mexico 2-0 United States
Mexico 8-0 Jamaica
Mexico 1-0 Costa Rica
----------------1974----------------
Mexico 3-1 United States
Mexico 2-1 Canada
----------------1978----------------
Mexico 3-0 United States <-- 23rd win in a row
Mexico 0-0 Canada <-- first non-win
Mexico 4-1 Haiti
Mexico 3-1 El Salvador
Mexico 8-1 Surinam
Mexico 2-1 Guatemala
Mexico 3-1 Canada
----------------1982----------------
Mexico 5-1 United States
Mexico 1-1 Canada
----------------1994----------------
Mexico 2-0 Honduras
Mexico 4-0 Costa Rica
Mexico 11-0 Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Mexico 3-0 Honduras
Mexico 3-1 El Salvador
Mexico 4-0 Canada
----------------1998----------------
Mexico 2-1 Jamaica
Mexico 5-1 Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Mexico 3-1 Honduras
Mexico 4-0 Canada
Mexico 6-0 Jamaica
Mexico 5-0 El Salvador
Mexico 0-0 United States
Mexico 3-3 Costa Rica
----------------2002----------------
Mexico 2-0 Canada
Mexico 7-1 Panama
Mexico 7-0 Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico 4-0 Jamaica
Mexico 1-2 Costa Rica

Their away record is generally solid too, but it is peppered with enough
losses all over the place so as not to have comparably long unbeaten
runs. Indeed, their very first qualifier played away from Mexico was a
4-2 defeat to the United States, on May 24th, 1934, at Stadio Nazionale,
in Rome - a mere three days before the World Cup's kick off. Seeing as
how that WC turned out to the US (a 7-1 defeat in the hands of the
hosts), looks like Mexico might have dodged a bullet.

And, fwiw, here's the run of 24 home WCQ wins in a row that followed
that defeat to Costa Rica:

----------------2002----------------
Mexico 1-0 United States
Mexico 3-0 Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico 3-0 Honduras
----------------2006----------------
Mexico 8-0 Dominica
Mexico 7-0 Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Mexico 3-0 Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico 8-0 Saint Kitts & Nevis
Mexico 2-1 United States
Mexico 2-0 Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico 2-0 Costa Rica
Mexico 5-0 Panama
Mexico 5-2 Guatemala
----------------2010----------------
Mexico 7-0 Belize
Mexico 2-1 Honduras
Mexico 3-0 Jamaica
Mexico 2-1 Canada
Mexico 2-0 Costa Rica
Mexico 2-1 Trinidad & Tobago
Mexico 2-1 United States
Mexico 1-0 Honduras
Mexico 4-1 El Salvador
----------------2014----------------
Mexico 3-1 Guyana
Mexico 1-0 Costa Rica
Mexico 2-0 El Salvador

Looks like this could be a record.

Best regards,

Lléo
PS: btw, when counting "wins in a row", I realized I missed one game
from Spain's run in my post about them, a 5-0 win over Latvia in the
1994 cycle. So, their current unbeaten home WCQ run now stands at 61
games, 51 wins and 10 draws, 181 goals scored and 28 conceded. It looks
very likely that they'll beat Brasil's 64-game long streak in this cycle
already.

On 17/04/2024 23:29, Lléo wrote:
> plus we had a look at Italy's recently broken one (at 59 games, by North
> Macedonia in 2022),

We have mentioned this one, but never posted it anywhere in the thread.
So here it goes:

----------------1934----------------
Italy 4-0 Greece (San Siro, Milan)
----------------1954----------------
Italy 5-1 Egypt (San Siro, Milan)
----------------1958----------------
Italy 1-0 Northern Ireland (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 3-0 Portugal (San Siro, Milan)
----------------1962----------------
Italy 6-0 Israel (Comunale, Turin)
----------------1966----------------
Italy 6-1 Finland (Luigi Ferraris, Genoa)
Italy 6-1 Poland (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 3-0 Scotland (San Paolo, Naples)
----------------1970----------------
Italy 4-1 Wales (Stadio Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 3-0 East Germany (San Paolo, Naples)
----------------1974----------------
Italy 0-0 Turkey (San Paolo, Naples)
Italy 5-0 Luxembourg (Luigi Ferraris, Genoa)
Italy 2-0 Switzerland (Olimpico, Rome)
----------------1978----------------
Italy 2-0 England (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 6-1 Finland (Comunale, Turin)
Italy 3-0 Luxembourg (Olimpico, Rome)
----------------1982----------------
Italy 2-0 Denmark (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 2-0 Yugoslavia (Comunale, Turin)
Italy 1-1 Greece (Comunale, Turin)
Italy 1-0 Luxembourg (San Paolo, Naples)
----------------1994----------------
Italy 2-2 Switzerland (Sant'Elia, Cagliari)
Italy 6-1 Malta (La Favorita, Palermo)
Italy 2-0 Estonia (Nereo Rocco, Trieste)
Italy 3-1 Scotland (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 1-0 Portugal (San Siro, Milan)
----------------1998----------------
Italy 1-0 Georgia (Renato Curi, Perugia)
Italy 3-0 Moldova (Nereo Rocco, Trieste)
Italy 3-0 Poland (San Paolo, Naples)
Italy 0-0 England (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 1-0 Russia (San Paolo, Naples)
----------------2002----------------
Italy 3-0 Romania (San Siro, Milan)
Italy 2-0 Georgia (del Cornero, Ancona)
Italy 4-0 Lithuania (Nereo Rocco, Trieste)
Italy 1-0 Hungary (Ennio Tardini, Parma)
----------------2006----------------
Italy 2-1 Norway (Renzo Barbera, Palermo)
Italy 4-3 Belarus (Ennio Tardini, Parma)
Italy 2-0 Scotland (San Siro, Milan)
Italy 1-0 Slovenia (Renzo Barbera, Palermo)
Italy 2-1 Moldova (Via del Mare, Lecce)
----------------2010----------------
Italy 2-0 Georgia (Friuli, Udine)
Italy 2-1 Montenegro (Via del Mare, Lecce)
Italy 1-1 Ireland (San Nicola, Bari)
Italy 2-0 Bulgaria (Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin)
Italy 3-2 Cyprus (Ennio Tardini, Parma)
----------------2014----------------
Italy 2-0 Malta (Alberto Braglia, Modena)
Italy 3-1 Denmark (San Siro, Milan)
Italy 1-0 Bulgaria (Renzo Barbera, Palermo)
Italy 2-1 Czech Republic (Juventus Stadium, Turin)
Italy 2-2 Armenia (San Paolo, Naples)
----------------2018----------------
Italy 1-1 Spain (Juventus Stadium, Turin)
Italy 2-0 Albania (Renzo Barbera, Palermo)
Italy 5-0 Liechtenstein (Friuli, Udine)
Italy 1-0 Israel (Città del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia)
Italy 1-1 Macedonia (Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin)
Italy 0-0 Sweden (San Siro, Milan)
----------------2022----------------
Italy 2-0 Northern Ireland (Ennio Tardini, Parma)
Italy 1-1 Bulgaria (Artemio Franchi, Florence)
Italy 5-0 Lithuania (Città del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia)
Italy 1-1 Switzerland (Olimpico, Rome)
Italy 0-1 North Macedonia (Renzo Barbera, Palermo)

Best regards,

Lléo

I wrote:
> At some point in the thread I wrote that I'd have a look for comparable
> stuff in CAF/AFC/Concacaf/OFC. The "easy" ones to begin with seemed to
> be OFC and Concacaf, with two clear dominating teams, historically:
> Australia and Mexico.

So, let's have a look at CAF then.

CAF also doesn't have a "live" unbeaten streak anymore. Every African
team has lost at home at least once, either in World Cup Qualification
or in Africa Cup of Nations' qualifiers. But if you know where to look,
you can unveil some pretty long streaks and interesting runs.

Though CAF was only founded on February 8th, 1957, one of their
founders, Egypt, had already previously played in World Cup
qualification matches. They faced no African opponents, though: it was
the Palestine British Mandate in 1934 and Italy in 1953. Indeed, they
already lost in their only second home WCQ match, 1-2 to the Italians.
After that failure to qualify, they withdrew from the 1958, 1962 and
1966 cycles and did not enter in 1970. Their attempts to qualify to the
World Cup resumed in the 1974 cycle.

On the continental front, they didn't need to face qualification for the
Africa Cup of Nations in 1957, 1959, 1962 and 1963 and withdrew in 1965,
entering the ACN's qualifying round from 1968 onwards.

Counting the qualifying cycles for both tournaments, starting right
after that loss to Italy, Egypt built an unbeaten run of 58 games, 48
wins, 10 draws, 158 goals scored and 33 conceded. Here is the full list
of games:

------------ACN-1968----------------
United Arab Republic 3-2 Lybia
------------ACN-1970----------------
United Arab Republic 1-0 Algeria
------------ACN-1972----------------
United Arab Republic 2-1 Lybia
United Arab Republic 3-2 Morocco
-------------WC-1974----------------
Egypt 2-1 Tunisia
------------ACN-1976----------------
Egypt 2-0 Burundi
Egypt 5-2 Tanzania
-------------WC-1978----------------
Egypt 3-0 Ethiopia
Egypt 1-0 Kenya
Egypt 2-0 Zambia
Egypt 3-1 Nigeria
Egypt 3-2 Tunisia
------------ACN-1978----------------
Egypt 2-2 Tunisia
------------ACN-1980----------------
Egypt 3-0 Kenya
-------------WC-1982----------------
Egypt 0-0 Morocco
Egypt 1-0 Zimbabwe
------------ACN-1982----------------
Egypt 2-0 Kenya
------------ACN-1984----------------
Egypt 2-0 Congo
Egypt 1-0 Tunisia
-------------WC-1986----------------
Egypt 1-0 Madagascar
Egypt 0-0 Morocco
-------------WC-1990----------------
Egypt 2-0 Liberia
Egypt 1-0 Malawi
Egypt 2-0 Kenya
Egypt 1-0 Algeria
------------ACN-1990----------------
Egypt 6-1 Ethiopia
Egypt 2-0 Zaire
------------ACN-1992----------------
Egypt 2-0 Ethiopia
Egypt 5-1 Chad
Egypt 2-2 Tunisia
-------------WC-1994----------------
Egyot 1-0 Angola
Egypt 3-0 Togo
Egypt 0-0 Zimbabwe
------------ACN-1994----------------
Egypt 2-1 Mali
Egypt 2-0 Malawi
Egypt 1-1 Morocco
------------ACN-1996----------------
Egypt 5-1 Tanzania
Egypt 5-0 Ethiopia
Egypt 3-1 Sudan
Egypt 1-1 Algeria
Egypt 6-0 Uganda
-------------WC-1998----------------
Egypt 7-1 Namibia
Egypt 0-0 Tunisia
Egypt 5-0 Liberia
------------ACN-1998----------------
Egypt 1-1 Morocco
Egypt 2-0 Senegal
Egypt 8-1 Ethiopia
-------------WC-2002----------------
Mauritius 0-2 Egypt (Mauritius "home" leg played in Cairo)
Egypt 4-2 Mauritius
Egypt 0-0 Morocco
Egypt 5-2 Algeria
Egypt 1-0 Senegal
Egypt 8-2 Namibia
------------ACN-2002----------------
Egypt 1-0 Ivory Coast
Egypt 4-0 Lybia
Egypt 3-2 Sudan
------------ACN-2004----------------
Egypt 7-0 Mauritius
Egypt 6-0 Madagascar
---------WC+ACN-2006----------------
Egypt 1-2 Ivory Coast

The breakdown per competition is:

WCQ: 26 games, 21 wins, 5 draws, 58 goals scored, 11 conceded;
ACNQ: 32 games, 26 wins, 5 draws, 100 goals scored, 22 conceded.

Individually, neither run seems to be particularly impressive when
compared to Brasil (64), Spain (61), Italy (59), Germany (53 away),
USSR/Russia (50 if WCQ only, 67 if WCQ + ECQ) or Mexico (49). Combined,
though, it's quite a long run and, to be fair with Egypt, most of the
time CAF's qualifying tournaments seem to be quick and painless:
basically a couple of playoff rounds and that's it, off you go, not much
room to pad the numbers it would seem.

Although the Africa Cup of Nations is held rather often, second only to
Copa America in frequency, so there's that too.

Given that CAF used the same qualifying tournament to both the World Cup
and the Africa Cup of Nations of 2006, Egypt's home loss to the Ivory
Coast at Alexandria Stadium, on June 20th, 2004, brought both runs
simultaneously to an end...

....or did it? I mean, the 2006 ACN was hosted by Egypt, so they didn't
need to qualify for it. They only played the qualification round because
they were trying to qualify to the World Cup, their final standing
didn't count for ACN qualifying purposes (the rule was 1st place goes to
the WC, 1st, 2nd and 3rd to ANC) - indeed, since Egypt finished 3rd in
the group, 4th placed Lybia "inherited" that group's last ANC spot.

I guess one could then try and argue that, for practical purposes, that
qualification cycle was "purely" a WC one for Egypt, so the loss would
only have ended their WCQ unbeaten run. I don't agree with that but,
just out of curiosity, if one pursues that line of argument, we could
still continue their ACNQ run for a while. Here's how it goes:

------------ACN-2008----------------
Egypt 4-1 Burundi
Egypt 3-0 Mauritania
Egypt 1-0 Botswana
---------WC+ACN-2010----------------
(here Egypt isn't ACN host anymore and has to qualify to it)
Egypt 2-1 Congo DR
Egypt 2-0 Malawi
Egypt 4-0 Djibouti
Egypt 1-1 Zambia
Egypt 3-0 Rwanda
Egypt 2-0 Algeria
------------ACN-2012----------------
Egypt 1-1 Sierra Leone
Egypt 0-0 South Africa
Egypt 3-0 Niger
------------ACN-2013----------------
Egypt 2-3 Central African Republic

In this scenario, the ACNQ run meets a bit of an ignominious end in the
hands of a minnow. Zidan and Salah scored for Egypt in that game, so it
doesn't look like it was a matter of fielding a B team or anything of
the sort. That was a playoff and the return fixture, in Bangui, ended
1-1. So Egypt, one of the most heralded teams in Africa, failed to
qualify to ACN 2013 after a mere two games, in the first qualifying
round already. As I said above, CAF often makes it quick and painless.

That would bring the ACNQ total to 44 games, 36 wins, 8 draws, 126 goals
scored and 26 conceded. But one could say, anyway, that the Ivory Coast
was the first African side to travel to Egypt and beat the hosts in a
qualifying game. Fwiw anyway.

And to close this (long) post, two honourable mentions.

Nigeria, who pulled a 49-game long unbeaten ACNQ home run since their
first game in 1961 until a loss to Congo DR in 2014, with 38 wins, 11
draws, 116 goals scored and 16 conceded. Likely the longest unbeaten
home run in Africa of a single "kind", so to say.

And the Ivory Coast, Egypt's "conqueror", who themselves managed to pull
a 40-game long unbeaten run in the ACNQ as well, with 36 wins, 4 draws,
106 goals scored and 11 conceded. A loss to Cameroon, in their last home
game of the 2006 WCQ+ACNQ cycle (the very same one in which they ended
Egypt's streak), broke an ages long run that came from their very first
ACN qualifying game in 1965.

Also, like Egypt, Ivory Coast at some point held a long combined ACNQ
and WCQ home run. They first entered WC qualification in the 1974 cycle,
and would only lose at home for the first time in 2001 (Congo DR at it
again).

The WCQ run was nothing to write home about, broken at only 19 games,
but up to that point their unbeaten home run in the ACNQ was at 34
games. So, from 1965 to 2001, they reached 53 unbeaten home qualifying
games in WC and ACN cycles, with 44 wins and 9 draws, 132 goals scored
and 20 conceded. Only five games short of Egypt's record.

Well, this has gone on for long enough I guess :-) Last one to look into
is AFC.

Best regards,

Lléo