CHAN 2016: All you need to know about teams in Group D

Full draw: Group A: Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Gabon. Group B: DRC, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Angola Group C: Tunisia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria Group D: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Mali Aftera two-year long wait, CHAN 2016 is finally around the corner. With four days to go, Times Sport will run profiles of all the 16 participating teams in Africa’s second most prestigious international football tournament. The 4th edition of the biennial continental showpiece, starting on Saturday, will run through to February 7 in Kigali, Rubavu and Huye. Today, we look at the four teams in Group D, which include; Uganda, Mali, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It’s a group of fine footballing nations, all the four have been in this tournament before and Rwandans, especially Rubavu residents, can only expect to be entertained. All group D matches will be hosted at Rubavu-based Umuganda stadium, a newly renovated 5,300-seat arena. Uganda Currently ranked in 62nd position in the latest FIFA rankings released last week, and fresh from winning CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup last December in Ethiopia, Milutin Micho Sredojevic’s Uganda are expected to put up a good fight to avoid an early exit from the tournament again. Making their third appearance at the continent’s second biggest football event, Uganda Cranes were eliminated from group stages in the last two editions, 2011 in Sudan and 2014 in South Africa. At the 3rd edition, they were in the same group with Zimbabwe again and both sides played a goalless draw in their group encounter. Mali Like their group opponents Uganda, the West African country will also be making their third appearance in CHAN after 2011 debut in Sudan and second appearance in 2014 in South Africa. In Sudan, Mali were knocked-out from group stages after finishing bottom of group C but made a step better to reach quarter-finals in 2014, where they lost 2-1 to Zimbabwe. Currently ranked 63rd in FIFA rankings, Mali can never be written off and what everyone is looking forward to is to see if they can make another step or two better to reach semi-finals or even win the tournament. Zambia Zambia is probably the least profiled team in CHAN history among group D countries, after making their debut with the inaugural edition of CHAN staged in Ivory Coast in 2009, the Southern African country failed to qualify for the 2011 and 2014 editions. Unlike the current 16-team format, George Lwandamina’s team reached the round of four at the 2009 edition in Ivory Coast that was contested by 8 countries, but were beaten by eventual champions DR Congo in the semi-final before settling for bronze after overcoming Senegal in a 2-1 hard fought win. The 2012 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) champions Zambia are currently ranked 67th in FIFA rankings and 15th on the continent, and will be looking to upset highly ranked group opponents Uganda and Mali. Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is the only team to have featured in all past editions of the competition, the 2009, 2011 and 2014. The Southern African nation, which is the least ranked in latest FIFA rankings, (108th), reached the round of four at the 2014 tournament after ousting Mali in the round of eight, but failed to overcome Libya in semi-finals. Zimbabwe also lost 1-0 to Nigeria in bid for a bronze medal. At the 2011 tourney in Sudan, Zimbabwe were eliminated at the group stage, like it was at the inaugural edition in 2009.

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CHAN 2016: All you need to know about teams in Group D