© Reuters 2002

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 10 (Reuters) - After an opening round of shock results, Africa's lightweight footballing nations face a tough scrutiny of their credentials in this weekend's African Nations Cup qualifiers.

Countries like Benin, the Cape Verde Islands, Libya, Madagascar, Niger and the Seychelles all achieved rare victories and find themselves in uncharted waters by making a positive start to a Nations Cup qualifying campaign.

But this weekend's second round of matches in the preliminaries for the 2004 finals in Tunisia is likely to bring a dose of realism to their aspirations.

Benin's 4-0 win over Tanzania was the biggest victory margin of the first set of fixtures last month but the west African country now face a much sterner test in Lusaka against Zambia.

Their hosts have been perennial qualifiers for the final tournament and also won last month, away in Sudan, to underline their favourite status in group three.

After originally failing to secure the release of their foreign-based players, Zambia have now belatedly called-up uncapped German-based midfielder Milton Tembo, Gift Kampamba, who plays in Russia, and their first-choice goalkeeper Davies Phiri, who is based in South Africa.

"We need professionals to strengthen our team as they have gained the exposure of playing abroad," said coach Patrick Phiri.

The Cape Verde Islands have also sought the experience of players based in Europe and started their campaign with a 2-0 win at Mauritania in group five - only their second-ever triumph in a Nations Cup match.

They host Kenya at the Varzea stadium on the island archipelago on Saturday, strengthened by the arrival of four players from Portuguese clubs, two from France and one each from Angola and Norway.

TWO-WEEK TOUR
Kenya prepared for the match with a two-week tour of Britain, which included matches against clubs in England and Northern Ireland.

Madagascar's 1-0 win over Egypt in group 10 proved one of the major shocks of the year in African football and their Swiss coach Hans Heiniger says he expects a similar result away at nearby Mauritius.

"We are ready. The players are tops," said the veteran coach as his team departed home on Thursday for Saturday's game in Flacq.

The Seychelles, who beat Eritrea in their first match in group six, face the possibility of a barrage away at Mali, who hosted the last Nations Cup finals earlier this year and reached the semi-finals.

Mali lost 1-0 at Zimbabwe in their opening game in group six but will give a debut to English-based striker Mamady Sidibe of Gillingham and welcome back Strasbourg's Mamadou Bagayoko, who both missed the match in Harare.

"The two will be key for us," said coach Christian Dagler, who has named 17 players from European clubs in his squad.

The weekend's matches see the entry into the qualifiers of Burundi, Chad, the Gambia, Malawi, Mauritius and Rwanda, who all did not play last month.

Chad have shown their ambitions with a lengthy training camp in France and the acquisition of a new coach, the Cameroonian Jean-Paul Akono, ahead of Friday's group 12 qualifier in Algeria.

Akono was in charge of the Cameroon team which won the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.