The Kenya national under 20 men’s football team will face Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco in the ‘group of death’ at this month’s Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
This was revealed following a draw conducted on Sunday evening in light of Ivory Coast’s withdrawal as hosts, late last month.
Salim Babu’s charges, will be making their debut at the tournament, have it all to do against their erstwhile opponents who have been regulars at the continental competition.
Nigeria are the record champions of the competition, having won it seven times the most recent being in 2015. The Flying Eagles also boast a record 13 appearances at the Under 20 World Cup, with their best performance coming in 2005 in the Netherlands where they finished second.
Meanwhile, Morocco’s only continental title was in 1997, coupled with three appearances at the World Cup where there best return was also in 2005 a fourth place finish.
Their fellow North Africans, Tunisia, finished as runners-up in 1985 while finishing fourth on two occasions 2021 and 2023.
At the last edition of the competition in 2023 in Egypt, the Flying Eagles thrashed the Tunisians 4-0 to bag bronze.
AFCON U20 will run from April 27 to May 18 in Egypt, with 13 teams competing for the four World Cup tickets and overall title.
The tournament had initially been scheduled for the Ivory Coast, but the West Africans withdrew at the last minute. Following their withdrawal, the draw had to be done afresh. Ivory Coast was replaced by Tunisia. The initial draw had Kenya playing defending champions Senegal, Sierra Leon and Zambia.
Group A features the hosts Egypt, who have won the competition three times, against South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania.
Tanzania and Kenya are the sole representatives of the CECAFA region , after reaching the final of CECAFA U20 last year.
Group B has Nigeria, Tunisia, Kenya, Morocco as Group C will entatain defending champions Senegal, Central African Republic, DR Congo and Ghana.
The top two teams from every group and the two best third-placed teams will progress to the quarter-finals. The semi-finalists of AFCON U20 will qualify for the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Chile.
