Malawi U-17 national team Coach Deklerk Msakakuona says his team is geared to win the 2022 COSAFA Under 17 Championship on home soil.
Msakakuona said this when he was reacting to the 2023 TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations-Cosafa Qualifiers draw in which Malawi has been drawn in group A alongside Botswana and Namibia.
While acknowledging that Malawi are in a tough group, Msakakuona said his team will prepare well for the opponents.
“It’s a fair but tough group because Botswana is a good side and Namibia are picking up in terms of youth development, but we have to set our pace as a team so that we have good results.
“As Malawi, its high time we produce a team for Afcon so we will have to prepare the boys well for the show so that we produce results, ” he said.
The games, which will be played as part of the Region 5 Youth games will be hosted in Lilongwe between 1-11 December 2022, will see the two finalists qualifying for the 2023 TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations which will be hosted by Algeria.
In the girl’s category, the five teams who registered to participate in the competition (Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, South Africa and Zambia) will play in a round-robin format and the team with the highest points will be crowned champions.