Malawi to face Angola again in U-17 Cosafa Cup
The wheels of fate seem to be following the path of Angola and Malawi who have once again been paired in the Under-17 Cosafa Cup set for Mauritius from July 19 to 29.
Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) held the draw for the tournament on Thursday at Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, South Africa where the Cosafa Cup is currently underway.
Malawi and Angola are in Group C alongside Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Group A has hosts Mauritius, Botswana, Namibia and Seychelles.
Defending champions Zambia are in Group B with Mozambique, Lesotho and South Africa.
Cosafa general secretary Sue Destombes said the draw was done based on teams’ past performance.
Hosts Mauritius, champions Zambia and Angola who qualified for CAF Under-17 Championship last edition were seeded.
After the draw, Flames coach Ronny Van Geneugden (RVG), who is the overseer of junior national teams, said Malawi was in a fair group.
“I think it’s a fair group. We know Swaziland, we have played Angola in Under-20 and Zimbabwe are not strangers,” he said. “I think we stand a god chance of making it to the final this year.”
Just like last year, three group winners will proceed to the semi-finals. They will be joined by one best loser.
The tournament will be used as zonal qualifier for the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be held in Tanzania next year.
Malawi won bronze at the last two events.
