National Teams

CAPE TOWN — Sierra Leone came from four goals down to hold Nigeria to a 4-4 draw in a dramatic Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Benin City as the preliminaries for the 2022 finals continued on Friday.

Tunisia kept its 100 percent record in the qualifiers with a 1-0 home victory over Tanzania, while Morocco's Hakim Ziyech scored twice as they beat Central African Republic 4-1 but South Africa struggled before winning 2-0 at home to Sao Tome e Principe.

MADRID — Sergio Ramos is set to become the most capped European footballer of all time when Spain visit Switzerland in the Nations League on Saturday.

The Spain captain, who last year became his country's all-time appearance maker, is in line for a 177th match which will take him ahead of former Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as the continent's most capped player.

Goran Pandev has been spearheading North Macedonia's attack for the best part of two decades and, though it seemed he was chasing a lost cause for much of that time, his persistence has been rewarded with their qualification for Euro 2020.

The 37-year-old, scorer of the winning goal against Georgia on Thursday which took North Macedonia to their first major tournament, has played under 14 different coaches, made 114 appearances and scored 36 goals since his debut against Turkey in 2001.

CAIRO — Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah has tested positive for the coronavirus on the eve of Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Togo, the Egyptian Football Association said on Friday.

"The medical swab conducted on the mission of our first national football team showed that our international player, Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool star, was infected with the Coronavirus, after his test came back positive," the federation said in a statement on its Facebook page.

SAO PAULO — Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni called for a more rigorous set of criteria for the Video Assistant Referee after Lionel Messi’s potential match-winning goal was chalked off for an infringement in their 1-1 draw with Paraguay.

Messi side-footed home from around 12 meters to complete a long and flowing counter-attack but play was hauled back for a foul committed in the Argentine half at the very start of the move.

A new era of the USMNT dawned on Thursday with Giovanni Reyna and Konrad de la Fuente playing in a front three that’ll soon be able to call upon Christian Pulisic and Josh Sargent for assistance. Watching the U.S. isn’t just fun again, it’s blissful.

North Macedonia qualified for Euro 2020, the first-ever major tournament in the team's 27-year history, when a second-half goal from 37-year-old forward Goran Pandev gave them a 1-0 win away to Georgia in their playoff on Thursday.

The USMNT returned from a 285-day hiatus on Thursday. A global pandemic and the U.S. federal government’s bungled response meant the Americans hadn’t taken the pitch since a friendly on Feb. 1. Since then, young Americans abroad have staked their claims as vital figures at some of Europe’s biggest clubs, from Borussia Dortmund to Juventus to Barcelona. 

The USMNT played its first match since Feb. 1 on Thursday, a friendly against Wales in Swansea. It was the first time the team had taken the field since Covid-19 shut the world down, since the world watched as George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by the police, since people around the globe began protesting systemic racism in police departments and society as a whole. And it was the first time the U.S. players had the opportunity to make their own statement as a team, and they did so with USMNT jackets featuring social justice messages.