Rwanda is poised to play against Seychelles in the first round of African qualifier for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, APA learnt Monday from sport sources.
The draw was announced by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, Egypt on Monday.
According to the draw, Rwanda will face the Pirates of Seychelles in a home-and-away showdown for a place in the group stage.
The games are set to be played between September 2 and 10.
Rwanda is currently ranked 133rd in the latest FIFA rankings while their opponents Seychelles are 59 places below them.
In the previous world cup qualification, Rwanda field to go past the first round as they lost out to Libya and this year, they will be hoping to come among the 14 teams who will win their qualification play-offs to join other 26 highly-ranked teams in the group stage, with only five teams advancing to Qatar 2022.
The preliminary draw included six of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and two, Burundi and Tanzania, were paired.
Aggregate winners join the 26 countries given byes, based on the July world rankings, in the six-round group phase from next March.
The ten section winners advance to playoffs, which will decide the five qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia represented Africa at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and none of them made it past the first round.
2022 World Cup Qualifiers
Draw: First, second legs: Sept 2-10
Seychelles v Rwanda
Ethiopia v Lesotho
Somalia v Zimbabwe
Eritrea v Namibia
Burundi v Tanzania
Djibouti v eSwatini (formerly Swaziland)
Botswana v Malawi
Gambia v Angola
Liberia v Sierra Leone
Mauritius v Mozambique
Sao Tome e Principe v Guinea-Bissau
South Sudan v Equatorial Guinea
Comoros v Togo
Chad v Sudan
CU/as/APA