Host Zambia will face neighbours Zimbabwe in the semi finals of the four nations tournament to be staged at Ndola’s Levy Mwanawasa Stadium.
The other tie will see South Africa and Angola battle it out for a place in the final.
The semi finals will be played on 22nd March 2018 which will be a Thursday while the final will be played on Sunday.
The tournament features the best of the best from the Cosafa region.
Both South Africa and Angola have been to the World Cup finals.
In terms of continental glory it’s only Zambia and South Africa with an African Cup of Nations.
Despite producing the likes of Peter Ndhlovu, Benjani Mwaruwari and Knowledge Musona, Zimbabwe has been one of the region’s underachievers on the global stage though the story is different in the Cosafa Cup.
The clash between Zambia and Zimbabwe will be billed as the ‘Battle of Zambezi.’
The Chipolopolo Boys will be looking to revenge last year’s Cosafa Cup defeat to the Warriors.
While Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has said he could have preferred the tour of Asia, his superiors at SAFA wouldn’t turn away the chance of facing Southern Africa’s finest talents.
Since the tournament will be played on a FIFA sanctioned week 19-27 March, all the sides are expected to field full strength sides including their European based players.
Baxters comments regarding this tournament left a lot to be desired. He seemed to insinuate the tournament was somewhat inferior. I hope his side gets whipped in both their games just to prove a point to him.
I thought maximum benefit would have bee derived from playing a sort of league format whereby each team meets the other three.
This tournament would have made more sense if Ghana or Egypt (West or North African) Opponents were invited…..Stuart Baxter has point