Taifa Stars to know Afcon finals opponents today
What you need to know:
- The 2024 Afcon finals have been scheduled to take place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from January 13 to February 11
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s national senior football team (Taifa Stars) are today looking to reveal their group opponents ahead of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals.
The prestigious tournament has been scheduled to take place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from January 13 to February 11.
According to the Confederation African Football (CAF), the finals’ draw will start at 9pm local time, having six pots as Taifa Stars are in pot four (4) together with Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, and Gambia.
The African football governing body clarified that teams will be split into six groups with four teams each, depending on the quality level of each team.
The hosts, Ivory Coast, are already in group A, awaiting three other rival teams from other pots.
Tanzania being placed in pot four means that they might be drawn in one of the toughest groups for next year’s Afcon finals.
Taifa Stars might be grouped with Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt as pot two has Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and the DR Congo.
According to CAF, Pot three has South Africa, Cape Verde, Guinea, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, and Mauritania.
However, Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) technical director Oscar Mirambo said they are ready to face any opponents in the finals and are eagerly awaiting to know them.
"When you qualify for the Afcon finals, you must be ready to face tough opponents.
“There are 24 teams that will be competing in the finals, and being in pot fourth means that we might be grouped with any of the teams from other pots.
"We are waiting for the draw to be held so that we can know who will be drawn with us, but the main thing is for us to have adequate preparations that will make us ready to face any nation in the competition," said Mirambo.
Taifa Stars will get into the Afcon finals this time with the task of ending the humiliation of being knocked out in the group stage of the tournament in 1980 and in 2019.
When Taifa Stars competed for the first time in the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations finals that were held in Lagos, Nigeria, following Peter Tino’s winning goal against Zambia, they found themselves finishing at the bottom of group A by collecting only one point in the three matches they played against the tough teams of Nigeria, Egypt, and Ivory Coast.
Again, in the 2019 finals of the competition that was held in Egypt, Taifa Stars finished last in group C after losing all their three matches to the teams of Kenya, Senegal, and Algeria.
This time around, Taifa Stars have qualified for the tournament for the third time after drawing 0-0 against one of the giants, Algeria.
