Africa Cup of Nations 2015: Cape Verde and Algeria qualify for Africa Cup, while Ivorians stunned

Cape Verde Islands celebrates their 1-0 win against Mozambique on Wednesday to become the first country to reach the 2015 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (Photo: FIFA)

Africa: Cape Verde defeat Mozambique 1-0 Wednesday to become the first qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations after a dramatic matchday 4 of qualifying.

The Blue Sharks were later joined by Algeria as goals from Yacine Brahimi, Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani earned the Desert Foxes a 3-0 triumph over Malawi in Blida.

Algeria are the only team with a perfect record after four rounds and lead Group B by six points from Mali with Ethiopia and Malawi three points further behind.

Democratic Republic of Congo stunned Ivory Coast 4-3 in Abidjan while title-holders Nigeria overcame Sudan 3-1 to get back into contention for a place among the 16 finalists.

Ghana stayed on track to qualify with a 3-1 home win against Guinea and shock 2012 champions Zambia trounced visiting Niger 3-0 to end an embarrassing winless streak.

Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Togo and Tunisia also won while the South Africa-Congo Brazzaville and Burkina Faso-Gabon matches were drawn.

Heldon Ramos was the toast of Cape Verde -- a group of islands off Senegal with a population of less than a million -- by scoring the 76th-winner in Praia.

The islanders debuted in the Cup of Nations last year and exceeded expectations by reaching the quarter-finals after.