Home | News | SIHLANGU IN TOUGH COSAFA DRAW

SIHLANGU IN TOUGH COSAFA DRAW

03/05/2019 04:11:00 BY ASHMOND NZIMA

Font size:

MBABANE – Sihlangu have been handed a relatively tough 2019 COSAFA Cup draw.

According to pairings made live on SuperSport last night, Kostadin Papic’s men will face Mauritius, Comoros and Africa Cup of Nations-bound Angola in the group stages of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) tournament which takes centre stage between May 25 and June 8 in Durban, South Africa.

relegated

For the first time in three years, Sihlangu have been relegated to the group stages following a poor ranking. They are ranked 10th out of 14 in the region. Top six teams on the charts got a bye to the quarter-finals.
In the last two editions, Sihlangu avoided the first hurdle, which are the group stages.

If Sihlangu win the group, they will face hoodoo side and defending champions Zimbabwe in the quarter-finals.
The format of the tournament will be the same as in previous years. The eight lowest-ranked sides were drawn into two pools each containing four sides.
In the other group are Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi and Seychelles.

Only the group winners will advance to the quarter-finals to meet the six seeded sides. The seeded sides are Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia, holders Zimbabwe and East African guest nation Uganda.

The losing quarter-finalists will drop to the Plate competition, which is a four-team competition.

draw

Reacting to last night’s draw, coach Papic also conceded that it was a tough draw, but asked to comment further upon gathering more data about the opponents.

“It is definitely a tough group, but it is too early to make a comment until we analyse the data,” he said briefly.
Meanwhile, Sihlangu are hoping for a reprieve following a terrible campaign in the last two editions. They last won a COSAFA match back in 2016 when they were still under the tutelage of Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga, who is now the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs.