Several of the favourites stumbled on the weekend as the first round of African World Cup qualifiers drew to an end.
South Africa, Angola and Senegal all failed to progress to the next round of the qualifiers after finishing third in their respective groups.
The 12 group winners and the best eight second-placed teams advanced to the second round.
World Cup 2010 hosts South Africa, who were participating in the qualifiers as they are doubling-up as qualifiers for the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola, were already knocked out of the competition in the penultimate round of qualifiers after losing 1-0 at home against Nigeria.
Bafana, who are automatically qualified for the World Cup finals as hosts, managed to end their qualifying campaign with a 1-0 victory against Equatorial Guinea in a Group 4 game.
Kaizer Chiefs player Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the only goal of the game in the 17th minute, but the victory was too little too late for the South Africans as they finished third behind group winners Nigeria, who trounced Sierra Leone 4-1.
The Super Eagles were the only African team to win all their qualifying matches to finish with an unblemished record.
Sierra Leone finished second in the group, but failed to qualify as one of the best eight second-placed teams.
Angola, who surprisingly qualified for the 2006 World Cup finals, were also knocked out, even though they won their final Group 3 game against Niger 3-1.
Like Uganda, Angola finished on 10 points behind group winners Benin, but Uganda, who came from behind to beat Benin 2-1 on Sunday, finished second through the head to head scoring and advanced to the second round of qualifiers as one of the best eight second-placed teams.
Senegal, who stunned the football world in 2002 by advancing to the quarter-finals, were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Gambia in Group 6 and went out as they finished on seven points - as did Gambia, but they lost on the head to head encounter.
Algeria, who played to a goalless draw in Liberia, top the group with 10 points.
Cameroon's Indomitable Lions comfortably won Group 1 with 15 points after beating Mauritius 5-0 in their final game, with Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o scoring twice. Cape Verde finished second, despite losing 3-1 in Tanzania, but were knocked out.
Also winning their group with 15 points were Burkina Faso, who surprisingly left Tunisia in second place in Group 9. The West Africans won 3-1 in Burundi on Sunday, while Tunisia beat the Seychelles 5-0 on Saturday.
There was heartbreak for Libya, who went into their final Group 5 game top of the table with 12 points, but lost 1-0 in Gabon and were knocked out after slipping down to third behind Gabon and Ghana, who had no problems in beating Lesotho 3-0.
Werder Bremen's Boubacar Sanogo scored either side of the break in Abidjan and Chelsea's Salomon Kalou added a third to give the Ivory Coast a 3-0 victory against Madagascar.
The Ivorians won Group 7 with 12 points ahead of Mozambique, who won 1-0 in Botswana to move past the team from southern Africa.
Other group winners include Morocco, who won Group 8 with nine points from Rwanda and Mali, who won Group 10 from Sudan.
Arsenal star Emmanuel Adebayor scored four for Togo in their 6-0 victory against Swaziland in a Group 11 game to finish second behind Zambia, but with enough points to qualify for the next round.
Egypt, who were to play Djibouti later Sunday, had already secured victory in Group 12, ahead of Malawi, who stunned DR Congo in Blantyre in a 2-1 comeback victory.
Swedish-based Russel Mwafulirwa, who plays for IFK Norrkoping, scored twice in the second half after former Newcastle and Portsmouth striker Tresor Lua Lua gave the visitors the lead.
In Conakry Ismael Bangoura, Mamadou Bah and Kamil Zayatte gave Guinea a comfortable 3-0 lead against Kenya in a Group 2 game on Sunday before Francis Ouma and Kevin Opondo pulled back two.
The victory sees Guinea leapfrog Kenya into first place in the group with 11 points, one more than Kenya, who still qualified for the next round as one of the best eight second-placed teams.
The next round sees the 20 qualifiers drawn into five groups, with the group winners advancing to the World Cup finals, while the top three teams in each group qualify for the Nations Cup finals, where they will join the hosts Angola.
