Flames among seven Cosafa teams in group stages

The Flames are among seven Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) teams that have made it to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying round group stages. It is the biggest representation at this stage in many years.

The Flames edged out Benin 4-3 on post-match penalties after John Banda’s goal in regulation had pulled the game level at 1-1. The Squirrels won the first leg of the second-round by a similar margin.

Malawi are in group B alongside Mali, Algeria and Ethiopia. Other fellow Cosafa members in the groups are Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, seeded South Africa, Angola and Zambia

“It means that Cosafa will have seven representatives in the pool phase of the qualifiers, a super return for the Southern African region,” wrote www.cosafa.com yesterday.

Having won 1-0 in the first leg, Lesotho drew 0-0 in Kenya on Sunday to claim their 1-0 tie on aggregate and enter Group C along with fellow Cosafa side Angola, Burkina Faso and Gabon.

Botswana also progressed after drawing 1-1 in the second leg in Guinea-Bissau to advance 3-1 on aggregate to join Tunisia, Egypt and Senegal. Mozambique are in Group F alongside Zambia, Cape Verde Islands and Niger.

South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria and Sudan make the other group. Top two sides in each pool advance to the 2015 Nations Cup finals in Morocco next January, along with the best third-placed side.
The pool matches get under way on the weekend of September 5/6, followed by midweek matches on September 10. There will be two more rounds in October and the final two in November, added Cosafa.