The race to grab places at the TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire begins this week with the preliminary round which will decide the six teams to advance to the group stage of the qualification tournament.

The preliminary round consisted of the twelve lowest-ranked countries among the 54 entrants: Somalia, Mauritius, Gambia, South Sudan, Chad, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Lesotho, Djibouti, Eswatini, Botswana and Eritrea.

Even before the matches kick-off, Botswana have already booked their place in the qualification group stage after Eritrea withdrew from the competition.

With the exception of Gambia and Mauritius who made their maiden AFCON appearance in the last edition in Cameroon and in 1974 respectively.

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The Scorpions of Gambia, after an outstanding AFCON campaign in Cameroon, would want to make it to the tournament again in 2023. But they have to see off a Chad opposition first in the preliminary stage.

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The Gambia senior national team on Monday arrived in Douala, Cameroon, ahead of their first-leg clash of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations preliminary qualifiers against the Les Sao of Chad on 23rd March 2022 at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaounde with game kick-off set at 16:00 GMT. The second leg will be staged at the Stade Adrar in Agadir, Morocco on Tuesday March 29.