Flames grouped with Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Liberia, São Tomé in FIFA World Cup 2026 African qualifiers
Malawi national football team, the Flames have been grouped with Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Liberia, São Tomé in FIFA World Cup 2026 African qualifiers.
This follows the conclusion of its meeting today, Thursday in Abidjan, the capital of Côte dIvoire, where the Confederation of African Football (CAF) unveiled the preliminary draw for the 2026 World Cup African qualifiers.
Group A has Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti; Group B (Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan; Group C (Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho).
Group D has Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Swaziland, Mauritius; Group E (Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea; Group F (Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles; Group G (Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia).
Group H has Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, São Tomé and Group I: Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, CAR, Comoros and Chad.
Starting in 2026, the FIFA World Cup will count 48 participating teams instead of 32.
The qualifying matches will take place on 10 matchdays over the course of the next two years, the first of which will be on November 13-21, 2023.
The next match days will be held on June 3-11, 2024, March 17-25, 2025, September 1-9, 2025, October 6-14, 2025, and November 10-18, 2025.
This 23rd edition of the World Cup tournament will count 48 participating countries instead of the conventional 32. This means that African teams as well as teams from the other confederations will secure more spots.
With these alterations, the final 2026 world cup draw will form 12 groups with 4 teams each. The number of games played in total will increase from 64 to 104, and the tournament will last between 38 to 40 days — according to Morocco World News.
Meanwhile, the Flames date Lesotho tomorrow in the first of the semifinal clashes of the 2023 COSAFA Cup at 15h00 central African time (CAT) followed by South Africa against defending champions Zambia, at 18h00 CAT.
Both matches will be played at the King Zwelithini Stadium and are free of charge, whose match tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.
Zambia qualified as best runners-up after Mauritius lost to Mozambique in their last Group C encounter in which the Mauritians need to win by four clear goals — but they lost 0-1.
SuperSport has apologized for failing to beam the Flames match against Comoros and assures that the next matches will be broadcast live.
Most Malawians followed the 2-0 victory against Comoros on FIFA+ — https://www.fifa.
Fans can also follow a behind the scenes look at the tournament on COSAFA’s various platforms of website cosafa.com, YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook page, Instagram and TikTok.
Meanwhile, 18 games were played in the group matches in which 42 goals were scored with the biggest victory being Comoros beating Seychelles 3-0 in Group B.
Most goals scored in a game were 6 in Seychelles 2 Zambia 4 (Group B) and Angola 4 Lesotho 2 (Group C).
So far, there are six who have scored two goals each — Affane Djambae (Comoros), Albert Kangwanda & Fredrick Mulambia (Zambia), Tshegofatso Mabasa (South Africa), Bongwa Matsebula (Eswatini) and Neo Mokhachane (Lesotho).
The chance to contest for the Golden Boot for the Flames is upon single goal scorers Christopher Kumwembe, Chawanangwa Kaonga, Patrick Mwaungulu and Lanjesi Nkhoma.
The Flames qualified for the semi-finals for the first time in 20 years and also for the first time ever to win all their group matches on clean sheet.
The Flames have also went a mile far by producing Man of the Match winners in all the three group matches — left back Alick Lungu in the first game against Zambia; Chawangwa Kaonga in the second against Seychelles and Patrick Mwaungulu against Comoros.
After keeping clean sheets in the last four games, goalkeeper Brighton Munthali has equalled the record achieved by Bonifice Maganga in 1979, John Dzimbiri twice in 1984 and 1985 and Donnex Gongwe thrice in 1988, 1989 and 1990.
He also kept a clean sheet in a goalless draw against Ethiopia in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier last month and he will equal the all-time record of five set by Gondwe in 1988 if he keeps another clean sheet in tomorrow’s semifinal.
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