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| Lioli will know their CAF Champions League fate on Wednesday |
All eyes this
week will be on Wednesday’s 2017 CAF Champions League draw. The draw will reveal
Lioli’s path to the group stage of Africa’s premier club competition.
Tse
Nala
will be hoping for a good draw because this year two wins would be enough to
reach the lucrative group stage as a result of changes to the tournament’s
format.
From 2017, the
Champions League group stage will be contested by 16 teams instead of eight.
The changes,
which will apply to both the Champions League and Confederation Cup tournaments,
were announced in May by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after a
meeting at its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
Until now both
competitions have featured eight teams in two groups of four teams.
Instead, “after
the preliminary round, 32 teams will qualify for the last 16 round in both
competitions. The winners of the last 16 round in the CAF Champions League,
will after the drawing of lots, be divided into four groups of four teams
each,” CAF said.
Lioli will be
making their third appearance in four years in the competition.
In 2014, Tse Nala lost 3-2 on aggregate to
Angola’s Primiero de Agosto while this year they succumbed on away goals to Vital’O
of Burundi after a 2-2 aggregate score.
Both defeats
came in the preliminary round and on both occasions Lioli could count
themselves unlucky after being let down by the smallest of margins.
The champions,
therefore, will be looking to use the experience gained from those outings to
finally win a Champions League tie when the competition kicks off on the
weekend of February 10. No Lesotho club has achieved the feat since 2001 when
LDF beat Botswana’s Mogoditshane Fighters 1-0 on aggregate in the preliminary
round to the reach the first round.
If Lioli were to
win their preliminary round tie their final hurdle to the group stage would be
the first round which will be played in March.
Lioli would then
be able to look forward to potential money-spinning games against African
titans Mamelodi Sundowns, TP Mazembe or Al Ahly if Tse Nala were to be drawn in their groups.
2017 CAF Champions League format:
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Phase
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Round
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First
leg
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Second
leg
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Qualifying
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Preliminary round
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10–12 February 2017
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17–19 February 2017
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First round
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10–12 March 2017
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17–19 March 2017
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Group stage
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Matchday 1
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12–14 May 2017
23–24 May 2017
2–4 June 2017
20–21 June 2017
31 June–2 July 2017
7–9 July 2017
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Matchday 2
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Matchday 3
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Matchday 4
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Matchday 5
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Matchday 6
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Knockout stage
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Quarter-finals
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8–10 September 2017
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15–17 September 2017
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Semi-finals
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29 September–1
October 2017
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13–15 October 2017
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Final
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27–29 October 2017
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3–5 November 2017
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