African countries have been competing at the World Cup since 1934 — Egypt withdrew in 1930 after missing their connecting ship to Uruguay as a result of a storm — and have made a total of 49 appearances in the competition.

Those appearances have been made up by 13 different countries, from Morocco, Tunisia and the aforementioned Egypt in the north to South Africa at the very southern tip of the continent.

The Athletic takes a look at Africa’s rich history at the World Cup and how each of these teams has got on.

• 1934: Egypt,
• 1970: Morocco,
• 1974: Zaire,
• 1978: Tunisia,
• 1982: Algeria & Cameroon,
• 1986: Algeria,
• 1990: Egypt,
• 1994: Cameroon & Morocco,
• 1998: Cameroon, Morocco, South Africa & Tunisia,
• 2002: Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa & Tunisia,
• 2006: Angola, Ivory Coast, Togo & Tunisia,
• 2010: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria & South Africa,
• 2014: Cameroon, Ivory Coast & Ghana,
• 2018: Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal & Tunisia,
• 2022: Cameroon, Ghana & Tunisia

Egypt were the first team from Africa to play at the World Cup — losing 4-2 to Hungary in the first round in Italy in 1934. Including their elimination, African teams have fallen in the first round 38 times.

However, even when African sides have bowed out early it has rarely been without incident. Some notable highlights have been Zaire reportedly not knowing the rules for a free-kick in 1974, Roger Milla dancing by the corner flag in 1990 and South Africa’s Siphiwe Tshabalala’s opening goal in the…