Shepolopolo Zambia coach Bruce Mwape says he is not expecting any surprises in Friday evenings 2022 Women’s AFCON tournament draws.
Twelve teams will go into the draws that will be made in Rabat at 22h30 Zambian time for the WAFCON that Morocco is going to host from July 2-23.
Shepolopolo and nine other teams including South Africa are unseeded.
Three seeded teams will lead the groups and they are Africa’s top ranked side and WAFCON champions Nigeria who are 41st in the World and Cameroon who are second and sit at number 53.
Morocco, who are 78th in the World, are also been seeded as hosts thus relegating Africa’s third best team South Africa who are at number 56 on the FIFA Rankings into the unseeded pots and will now wait to know in which group they will be drawn.
“There are no easy teams at AFCON because all the teams that qualified so we expect the draws to be fair,” Mwape said.
“They are seeded and unseeded teams so we expect everything to be OK with regards the draws.”
Meanwhile, Shepolopolo will be in action just hours before the draws against fellow 2022 WAFCON finalists Botswana at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka.
The match will be one of two friendlies against Botswana and the final game will be played on May 2 at Nkoloma.
But both are unseeded and will be hoping not to be drawn against each on Friday to spoil their friendly itinerary.
Shepolopolo are heading for their second consecutive WAFCON after making a group stage exit at Ghana 2018.
Morocco will mark Zambia’s third-ever tournament appearance.
UNSEEDED TEAMS: Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Burundi, Tunisia, Senegal, Botswana, Burkina Faso, South Africa
