AFCON 2013: Ghana to Face Malawi

The Black stars have been drawn to play Malawi at home in the the final qualifying round for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

The final qualifying round draw took place in Johannesburg, South Africa on Thursday night, with the 30 countries remaining in the qualifiers discovering who their opponents would be.

As host nation, South Africa qualifies automatically, leaving 15 spots open for the remaining national teams, as they play their opponents over two legs to decide the victor and qualifier for the 2013 Afcon.

The 30 teams were divided into two pots ahead of the draw. Pot A contained all the seeded teams based on their performances at the last three Afcon editions. This included Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia and Zambia.<

Pot B contained the likes of Botswana, Cape Verde Islands, Central Africa Republic, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, DR Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The biggest gasp of the night was reserved for the moment when Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire were revealed as opponents in the final round of qualifying, setting up a classic of African football.

Other interesting clashes include Ghana against Malawi, Nigeria taking on Liberia and an all north African battle between Algeria and Libya.

The 30 teams will play home and away fixtures on September 7-9 and October 12-14 to determine the 16 finalists, who will then be drawn into the Afcon groups on October 26.

The Full Draw can be seen below:

Mali v Botswana
Zimbabwe v Angola
Ghana v Malawi
Liberia v Nigeria
Zambia v Uganda
Cape Verde Islands v Cameroon
Mozambique v Morocco
Sierra Leone v Tunisia
Guinea v Niger
Sudan v Ethiopia
Libya v Algeria
Ivory Coast v Senegal
DR Congo v Equatorial Guinea
Gabon v Togo
Central African Republic v Burkina Faso

Teams mentioned first played at home in the first leg on the
weekend of Sept. 7-9 with the return match on the weekend of
October 12-14.
The winners join hosts South Africa in the finals from Jan,
19-Feb. 10 next year.