The Scorpions will battle against many times champions Cameroon in Central Africa, the Bafana Bafana of South Africa and also take a relatively shorter trip to Mauritania. Three of the six qualifying matches will be played at home, while the remainder will be played around the capitals of the nations in our group between June 2015 and late 2016.
The Standard yesterday sounded the views of some Gambians with most stating that this is perhaps the toughest draw for the country in recent times.
The Draw in full:
Group A: Tunisia, Togo, Liberia, Djibouti
Group B: Madagascar, DRC, Angola, CAR
Group C: Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Benin, South Sudan
Group D: Burkina Faso, Uganda, Botswana, Comoros
Group E: Zambia, Congo, Kenya, Guinea Bissau
Group F: Cape Verde, Morocco, Libya, Sao Tome
Group G: Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Chad
Group H: Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius
Group I: Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Gabon
Group J: Algeria, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Seychelles
Group K: Senegal, Niger, Nambia, Burundi
Group L: Guinea, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland
Group M: Cameroon, South Africa, Gambia,
Mauritania.
The group winners and two best second placed teams join hosts Gabon for the finals.
Qualifying starts on the weekend of June 12-14.
Gabon the host will join one of the groups but their results will not affect the standing of their group mates.
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