Lesotho will host South Africa in an international friendly in Maseru on June 1.

The COSAFA rivals will use the match as a warm-up for their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers later in the month.

“This is a hugely important match for us and we must thank the Lesotho FA for agreeing to the fixture as we struggled to get a warm-up ahead of the two important qualifiers," Bafana coach Gordon Igesund said.

"The last time we played a match was in March when we faced the CAR in Cape Town, so this clash against Lesotho will help a great deal with our preparations.

Host Zambia face Mozambique in Cosafa Cup quarterfinals while Bafana Bafana must wait to know their Last 8 opponents from Group A.

Mozambique, Bafana Bafana, Malawi, Angola, hosts Zambia and defending champions Zimbabwe all enjoy byes from the group stage and will enter the competition at the quarterfinal stage.

Zambia will face Mozambique on July 14 in the fourth quarterfinal match in Kabwe following tournament draws made on May 3 in Lusaka.

Bafana will face winner from Group A on July 13 in Lusaka that contains Namibia, Mauritius, Seychelles and guest team from the Cecafa zone, Tanzania.

Bafana Bafana, Angola, champions Zimbabwe and hosts Zambia seeded and on first round byes in the May 3 COSAFA Cup draws.

And CECAFA zone nations Tanzania and Kenya have been invited to take part in this year’s COSAFA Cup to be held in Zambia from July 6-21.

According to Cosafa, Zambia, Bafana, Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi and Mozambique will all enjoy group stage byes and join the competition in the quarterfinals on July 13 thanks to their FIFA rankings as of April 11, 2013.

Meanwhile, guest teams Tanzania and Kenya are the seeded teams in the group draws.

Eight teams will go into Fridays two group draws for preliminary round matches to be played at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka and Godfrey 'Ucar' Chitalu Stadium in Kabwe.

With the Cosafa Senior Challenge coming back to action in July in Zambia the participating countries have confirmed that they will take part.

Cosafa has 14 members and they have all confirmed that they will travel to the 2012 Afcon Champions for the tournament.

The Cosafa Senior Challenge tournament has not been played in the past three years and Zambia will host the tournament in two areas, Lusaka and the Copperbelt from July 6-21, 2013.

A Cosafa delegation, led by COO Sue Destombes, was in Zambia last week to inspect facilities ahead of the competition. Cosafa approved Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka and Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola as the two host stadia for the tournament.

Several of the favourites in Africa’s qualifiers for the 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil struggled on the third matchday of the group stage, now at the half-way point.

Morocco's loss in Tanzania was the biggest surprise, while 2012 African champions Zambia were held to a draw in Lesotho and Senegal and new African kings Nigeria were held at home. As only the ten group winners advance to the final round of qualifying, the dropped points will undoubtedly increase the pressure and the chances of a major shock moving forward.

The Super Eagles were expected to enjoy a bit of a walk in the park at home against their East African opponents, however, it turned out to be anything but as 20-year-old Kahata gave the visitors the lead when he scored direct from a free-kick.

A 10-man Zambia this afternoon compromised their lead at the summit of group D when they drew 1–1 with Lesotho in Maseru to move to 7 points after 3 games.

It was Collins Mbesuma who was Zambia’s best player on the day who scored for Zambia with 17 minutes to play after Kennedy Mweene was red carded for a professional foul following a blunder by Sunzu who was out of sorts for most parts of the match.

But Lesotho’s Marabe spoiled the party for Zambia in the 89th minute after he side stepped Hichani Himonde to rifle home from 20 yards.

It was an end to end encounter with Lesotho comfortable to sit back and play on the counter and they were the first to threaten on 2 minutes after they found space on the break but Mweene saved the lobbed shot comfortably.

Lesotho have named two South African based players in their squad for Sunday’s upcoming World Cup qualifier against Zambia, which is to be screened live on SuperSport.

Coach Leslie Notsi will also have the Tunisian-based midfielder Bokang Mothoana in his 20-man squad for the Group D match in Maseru.

Winger Katleho Moleko, a former junior at Orlando Pirates, is with FC Atletico in Cape Town and Tsepo Lekhoana, who has just signed for Maluti FET College. Both clubs play in the third tier of South African football.

Lesotho have a single point from their first two group games, given a 7-0 hiding by Ghana in their opening qualifiers away in Kumasi in June but then drawing 0-0 at home with Sudan one week later.

Asante Kotoko of Ghana took a trip down memory lane before whipping Sony Ela Nguema of Equatorial Guinea 7-0 at the weekend in a CAF Champions League preliminary round match.

Kotoko officials invited members of the 1983 team that conquered Africa to meet with the current squad a day before the match at Baba Yara stadium in central city Kumasi.

Whatever former stars like Ibrahim Sunday, Opoku Afriyie and Maxwell Konadu said, it had the desired effect as the Porcupine Warriors scored four goals by half-time and a further three during the second half.

Kofi Boakye bagged a brace and there were single-goal contributions from Abdulaziz Yusif, Michael Anaba, Richard Mpong, substitute Siedu Bancey and Joseph Ochaya.

Lesotho coach Leslie Notsi says they are bracing for wounded Zambia’s visit next month in a 2014 World Cup Group D qualifier.

Zambia plays its first competitive game on March 22 away to Lesotho since relinquishing its Africa Cup crown in South Africa in January.

Notsi told MTNFootball.com that Lesotho were not going to take Zambia lightly in Maseru despite their Africa Cup misadventure.

"Now they will be more dangerous because they will be like wounded Tigers," Notsi said.

"I am still expecting a very tough game.

Zambia Under-17 beat Lesotho 3-1 on post-match penalties to set up a thrilling encounter against South Africa on Sunday in the final of the SCSA Zone VI games.

Zambia got a rude shock when they discovered that Lesotho weren’t push overs as expected and were comfortable on the ball. It was like whatever Zambia could do, ‘we could do.’

In the first half, it was an even affair but after the break, Zambia enjoyed more of ball possession but that meant leaving spaces at the back had Lesotho being clinical enough, they could have capitalised as they were a threat at the back.

The best chance though fell to Zambia but substitute Kingsley Mukuka from Kasama saw his header from close range acrobatically saved by goalkeeper Thabiso Lichaba.