Defending champions and seven-time winners of the competition, Egypt, have been eliminated from the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations after suffering a 2-1 loss in Sierra Leone, Saturday. It is the first time in more than 30 years that Egypt have failed to qualify to the final round of the competition.

Things looked badly at the start when with only14 minutes gone, the three-time defending champions, Egypt conceded the first goal, scored by Sheriff Suma in the 14th minute. Mohsen Maruwan levelled for them in the 45th minute, but Mohamed Bangura's last-minute spot-kick ended a troubled effort to qualify from the Pharaohs.

Egypt had to win to have any chance of reaching next year's tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. In the end, they slumped to their third defeat in five matches in qualifying. So whatever happens in the remaining matches egypt will finish at the bottom of its group. Even if they had won, Egypt still needed an unlikely set of results to keep alive any hope of defending the title in 2012.

As expected, Egypt fielded many under-23 internationals in Freetown alongside senior squad captain Ahmed Hassan, who played his 176th international to close in on the all-time record of 178 caps held by Saudi Arabia's Mohammad Al Deayea. Stand-in coach Hani Ramzy took charge of Egypt for the first time after Hassan Shehata parted company with the team in June.

With its second straight victory, Sierra Leone moved level on points at the top of Group 7 with South Africa and revived their own hopes of qualifying for the African championship.

South Africa lost the chance to become sole leaders when they lost their match against Niger 2-0, with Kofi on 15 minutes and Mazour on 63 the scorers.

Full results

GROUP 1
Mali v Cape Verde 3-0
Zimbabwe v Liberia 3-0
GROUP 2
Madagascar v Nigeria 2-0
Guinea v Ethiopia 1-0
GROUP 3
Libya v. Mozambique 1-0
Comoros v Zambia 1-2
GROUP 4
Tanzania v Algeria 1-1
CAF v Morocco 0-0
GROUP 5
Cameroon v Mauritius 5-0
Senegal v DR Congo 2-0
GROUP 6
Namibia v Gambia 1-0
GROUP 7
Sierra Leone Egypt 2-1
Niger v South Africa 2-0
GROUP 8
Rwanda v Ivory Coast 0-5
Burundi v Benin 1-1
GROUP 9
Ghana v Zwaziland 2-0
Congo v Sudan 0-1
GROUP 10
Kenya v Guinea-Bissau 2-1
Angola v Uganda 2-0
GROUP 11
Malawi v Tunisia 0-0
Togo v Botswana 1-0