Ghana and Nigeria's much anticipated World Cup qualifier ended goalless on Sunday with the two powerful west African nations slipping back in the race for places at next year's finals in Japan and South Korea.

A capacity crowd in Accra watched Ghana's makeshift side maintain their 18-year unbeaten record against their star-studded rivals while Nigeria dropped to third in their five-team group halfway through the qualifying campaign. The lack of goals in Accra contrasted with a veritable feast in Cairo where Egypt beat Algeria 5-2 to record their first win in group C and join Senegal and Morocco at the top of the table. Senegal were among the other weekend winners, along with the Ivory Coast, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Ghana gained a moral victory over Nigeria even if they dropped a further two points and are now all but dead and buried. They managed the draw with a side made up only of locally-based players after Ghana's coach Jones Attaquayefio dropped all the country's foreign stars following successive defeats in their two previous qualifiers. Nigeria now find themselves trailing two points behind Liberia and Sudan in group B.

RARE AWAY WIN

Liberia did not play this weekend but Sudan surprised with a rare away victory, beating Sierra Leone 2-0 in Freetown on Saturday.

The shock defeat came courtesy of two quick goals just before halftime and Sierra Leone president Ahmed Tejjan Kabbah was forced to leave the ground early as the anger of the home crowd exploded into an orgy of bottle and missile throwing. It was the fourth successive defeat for Sierra Leone, the only one of the 25 African teams in the qualifiers yet to win a single point.

Police action was also needed in Kinshasa on Saturday to quell a crowd seeking to attack referee Lucien Bouchardeau of Niger after the Democratic Republic of Congo lost 2-1 to the Ivory Coast in group D.

Olympique Marseille striker Ibrahima Bakayoko scored the winner just before halftime -- his sixth goal of the campaign. Bakayoko's clubmate Djamel Belmadi was among the scorers for Algeria in Cairo although it was Egypt who raced to a goal feast after leading 3-2 at halftime in the north African derby. Two more late goals by Tarek El Said ensured a first win in the group for the Pharaohs, who now share top place with Senegal and Morocco.

DIOUF HAT-TRICK

Striker El Hadji Diouf made good use of his suspension at French club Lens to travel home to Senegal and score a hat-trick in Saturday's 4-0 win over Namibia, whose team arrived only on the eve of the match because of airline schedule problems. Angola failed to win in group A away at Togo, coming back from a goal down to force a 1-1 draw in Lome on Sunday. The result pushed them back into second place five points behind Cameroon, who would seem to have this section sewn up. Zimbabwe's 2-0 win at home against Malawi put them back in contention in group E, where the top-of-the-table clash between South Africa and Guinea was cancelled because of the FIFA suspension of Guinea.

Edzai Kasinuayo scored on his debut for Zimbabwe, now three points behind South Africa.

The next round of African qualifiers will be played on the weekend of April 21-22.