- Angola return for their fourth CHAN appearance
- They have never won the title
- They reached the final in 2011
Angola return to the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) for their fourth appearance, having missed the last showpiece in Cameroon. Finalists in the second edition in 2011, the Palancas Negras are keen to make a worthy return where they hope for similar fortunes, and probably go one better and clinch the trophy.
Angola had an incredibly impressive campaign in the qualifiers. In both rounds of the qualification path, they ran riot starting with their 3-0 on aggregate win over Mauritius and went on to annihilate South Africa with a 6-1 victory in the second leg.
For the 2022 showpiece, Angola have been drawn in Pool D where only three teams compete against each other for a single slot to the knockout rounds. They will battle out with Mali and Mauritania and will play their matches at the Miloud Hadefi Stadium in Oran.
The team will be shepherded by Portuguese trainer Pedro Gonçalves who spent his formative years in Angola working in youth football, having headed the Primero de Agosto Academy between 2015 and 2019 before doubling up as the Angolan Under-17 coach in 2018 and 2019.
Worked with Angola Youth teams
He was appointed as the head-coach of the Angolan under-17 national team in April 2018 and helped them qualify for the 2019 FIFA World Cup.
He was then handed the senior team role in 2019.
The Angolan national team boats of a plethora of talent and there won’t be a shortage of names to look out for once the team lands in Oran to start their campaign.
Augusto de Jesus Corte Real Carneiro is one of those to look out for. The Petro de Luanda forward has been in good form for both club and country and was a key member of their qualification team, scoring once.
Joaquim Paciencia who plays for Sagrada Esperanca is another player to keep a keen eye on. The centre forward also scored once during the qualifiers and has eight goals in 18 matches for his club in the local Angolan league this term.
Qualified for CHAN thrice
Angola has qualified for the Africa Nations Championship three times, and 2011 remains to be their best ever performance. This year, they went all the way to the final and lost 3-0 to Tunisia, who they had played to a 1-1 draw in the group stages before.
They had finished second in their group behind the Tunisians and went on to beat Cameroon 8-7 on penalties in the quarters before seeing off Sudan 4-2, also on penalties in the semis.
They missed the subsequent edition in 2014 but qualified for Rwanda 2016 where they finished third in their group with three points from a single victory.
They qualified for a consecutive time for Morocco 2018 where they reached the quarter finals, losing to Nigeria 2-1 after extra time. They had finished second in their group.
This will be their fourth participation in the tournament.
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