By Duncan Mlanjira
South Sudan ?? beat Seychelles ?? 1-0 in last week’s Preliminary Round’s second leg to qualify for the group stages by 3-1 on aggregate having won 2-0 in the first encounnter.
They join Malawi ??, Burkina Faso ?? and Uganda ?? in Group B whose back to back Match 1 and 2 fixtures are set for week of November 11-19.
The other match days are up in 2010, first on the week of August 31 to September 8, then October 5-13 and finally November 9-17.
Other winners from the preliminary round are Chad ??, who beat Liberia ?? 1-0 to draw 1-1 on aggregate but the Chadians progressed on a 5-4 penalties win.
They join Mali ??, Guinea ?? and Namibia ?? in Group A while Gambia ?? beat Djibouti ?? 3-2 on penalties after drawing 2-2 on aggregate for Gambia to join Group D with DR Congo ??, Gabon ?? and Angola ??.
São Tomé e Principe ?? are also through having beaten Mauritius ??5-2 on aggregate (2-1 in first leg) to join Group C with Ghana ??, South Africa ?? and Sudan ??.
Group D has DR Congo ??, Gabon, Angola ?? and Gambia Group E having Morocco ??, Central African Republic, Burundi ?? and Mauritania ??, who will gunning for the second appearance at the finals having unruffled a some feathers at the 2019 finals.
Burundi ?? will also aiming for the second participation of this prestigious African football fiesta.
Gerald Phiri Jnr. in action for the Flames
Group F has Cameroon ??, Cape Verde, Mozambique ?? and Rwanda while in Group G Egypt ?? are up against Kenya ??, Togo ?? and Comoros Islands.
North African giants, Algeria ?? are in Group H together with three Confederation of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) representatives — Zambia ??, Zimbabwe ?? and Botswana ??.
Group I has Senegal ??, Congo ??, Guinea-Bissau ?? and Eswatini ?? while in Group J, Tunisia ?? will be up against Angola ??, Tanzania ?? and Equatorial Guinea.
Cote d’Ivoire ?? are Group K with Niger ??, Madagascar ?? and Ethiopia while West African giants Nigeria ?? face Benin ??, Sierra Leone and Lesotho ?? in Group L.
A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including Cameroon who qualified automatically as hosts but are expected to participate in the qualifiers regardless of its ranking in the group.
Their matches and results will count in determining the qualification of the other teams from their group.
Flames are also in the group qualifying stages of the 2022 Qatar World Cup after beating Botswana 1-0 on aggregate in the preliminary round.
The Flames now join 14 other winners from the preliminary round, who will joined by 26 nations that were seeded.
They will be divided into 10 groups of four teams each and at the end of the group stage, the 10 group winners will be paired, based on ranking, to compete in a two-legged play-off round.
During this group stage, the 5 higher ranked teams will play the first legs away and five winners from the group’s will represent Africa at the FIFA World Cup to be hosted by Qatar in 2022.