Football Kenya Federation boss Nick Mwendwa has hailed yesterday’s qualifying draw for the Cameroon 2019 AFCON as “good” for Kenya.
The East Africans were pooled in group F along side four-time winners Ghana, neighbors Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.
“It’s a good draw,” Mwendwa told Soka25east.com, adding that they will continue the work they started with “the Harambee Stars” to make sure they qualify.
“We will continue on the same path -continue the work we have been doing, and make sure the team is well taken care of and well prepared by playing friendlies during the FIFA days.”
He talked of the possibility of the perceived underdogs pulling a surprise.
“You can’t write off any team at the moment, anything can happen, we could see a surprise.”
12 group winners plus the hosts Cameroon will qualify alongside the three best runners-up.
Kenya have been out of the continental showpiece since Tunisia 2004. The pressure will be on them to emulate neighbors and arch rivals Uganda, who broke a 39-year-old jinx to qualify for this year’s edition in Gabon.
The group stage of qualifying starts June and concludes November 2018.
Draw in full:
A: Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Sao Tome/Madagascar
B: Cameroon, Morocco, Malawi, Comoros/Mauritius
C: Mali, Gabon, Burundi, Djibouti/South Sudan
D: Algeria, Togo, Benin, The Gambia
E: Nigeria, South Africa, Libya, Seychelles
F: Ghana, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Kenya
G: DR Congo, Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia
H: Ivory Coast, Guinea, Central African Republic, Rwanda
I: Burkina Faso, Angola, Botswana, Mauritania
J: Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Swaziland
K: Zambia, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia
L: Cape Verde, Uganda, Tanzania, Lesotho
