COSAFA Beach Soccer Championship: Perfect rehearsal before AFCON in Mozambique

Mozambique will be hoping to successfully defend their regional title when the Cosafa Beach Soccer Championship gets underway in Durban, South Africa on Sunday. The competition will see eight teams battle it out for the crown of the Southern region from 25 September to 1 October.
The tournament also features Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania and the reigning continental champions, Senegal as guests. This will also be the perfect warm up to the Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations that will be staged in Mozambique from 21-28 October whereby these four teams will compete.
The defending champions have a tough campaign in their cards as they have been drawn against the Lions of Teranga in Group A. However, the two are no strangers to one another, they battled it out for the continental title in the final last year with the West African side taking the match with a 4-1 victory. The Abineiro Ussaca led side will be hoping to avenge the loss. Hosts and Seychelles and are the other two teams in the group.
Cosafa side, Mauritius, have their plate full in Group B as all their opponents are from outside the region. They will face Egypt in their opener with the Sand Cranes taking on Tanzania in the other Group B opener.
Malawi and Madagascar are the other teams that have qualified for the Beach Afcon, however they will not take part in the regional competition.
The Mambas are only the second team to win the Cosafa title since its launch in the played in Seychelles in 2015, Madagascar are the other team to have walked away with the gold medal.

Source: Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF)