Cosafa Cup: Malawi drawn in same group as Angola

Malawi national soccer team will play three-time winners Angola at the 2016 Cosafa Cup after both teams were drawn in Group B.

In their group, Malawi will also face Lesotho and Mauritius. The winners of Group B will play South Africa in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Zambia will face the winners of Group A in their quarterfinal, which will mean one of Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Seychelles and Madagascar who were one of the surprise packages from 2015.

The other quarterfinals see guest nation DR Congo come up against 2015 runners-up Mozambique, while holders Namibia take on Botswana.

The first round group stage will take up the first week of the tournament from June 11, with just the top team in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals.

The championship then continues in a knockout format, with the quarterfinal losers dropping into the Plate competition that was first introduced in 2013 and last year was claimed by Malawi.

Zambia and Zimbabwe have each claimed four titles of Cosafa Cup each, with South Africa and Angola winning it three times. Namibia claimed their first championship when they won it in 2015 COSAFA Castle Cup.

Cosafa Cup first round

Group A

A1 – Zimbabwe

A2 – Swaziland

A3 – Seychelles

A4 – Madagascar

Group B

B1 – Malawi

B2 – Angola

B3 – Lesotho

B4 – Mauritius

Quarterfinal draw

QF1 – South Africa vs Winner Group B

QF2 – Botswana vs Namibia

QF3 – Zambia vs Winner Group A

QF4 – DR Congo vs Mozambique