Road to Olympics: Congo Brazzaville stage come back to set-up meeting with Zambia U23

The Zambia U23 Men’s national soccer team will play Congo Brazzaville after the Central African country booked its place in the final round of the Egypt 2019 U23 Africa Cup of Nations tournament qualifiers with a 2 – 1 victory over Burundi.

The two teams drew 0 – 0 in Burundi and it was the visitors who looked like they would carry the day after they went ahead in the 21st minute through a Kenenimana Bienvenue goal.

The hosts left it late to score the equalizer in the 90th minute through Massanga Matondo. They were given a lifeline in the 4th minute of the referee’s optional time when they were awarded a penalty which was converted by Guy Mbenza.

Their next opponents Zambia despatched neighbours Malawi with a 2 – 0 aggregate scoreline after they won via 1 – 0 scorelines in both the away and home matches.

The two teams play the first leg in Zambia on Wednesday 5th June before the two teams play the return match four days later on 9th match.

The winner over the two legs will qualify to the U23 Africa Cup of Nations. The Tournament will feature players who were born on 1 January 1997 or later.

A total of eight teams qualify to play in the final tournament, including Egypt who qualified automatically as hosts.

These matches also serve as the first stage of the CAF qualifiers for the 2020 Summer Olympics men’s football tournament in Japan. The top three teams will qualify to the tournament.

The 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations will be the 3rd edition of the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, the quadrennial international age-restricted football championship organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the men’s under-23 national teams of Africa.

The tournament was initially scheduled to take place in Zambia, but they withdrew from hosting in July 2017.  Egypt was announced as the new host nation of the tournament by CAF on 23 September 2017.

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