Kalusha Bwalya, the president of Football Association of Zambia, sighed with relief when his country secured qualification to the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations with a fraught penalty-shootout win over Uganda, and now he’s confident they can defend their title in South Africa. Zambia won their first continental title at 2012 Gabon and Equatorial Guinea Africa Cup of Nations finals earlier this year, edging favourites Ivory Coast on penalties, but their participation in next year’s tournament in South Africa looked to be in jeopardy when they lost 1-0 to Uganda in Kampala in the second leg final qualifier to leave the match tied 1-1 in aggregate. The Chipolopolo, however, kept their nerve in the penalty shootout, and Bwalya conceded he was relieved to see Zambia take their place as one of the 15 finalists who join hosts South Africa in the final draw for next year’s tournament. “It would have been a travesty had we failed to make it to South Africa to defend our trophy,” Bwalya said in Durban ahead of Wednesday’s final draw. “I told the players that they needed to put everything into that final match against Uganda. Ultimately, we kept our nerve and we showed why we are champions by winning in the penalty shootout.” Zambia are among the seeded teams for Wednesday’s draw, which will take place at the Chief Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in the coastal city of Durban, one of four hosts selected to host next year’s event. Bwalya is glad that his country, who will be in Group C, will avoid big guns such as Ivory Coast and Ghana. “It’s the first time ever that we are seeded and I’m happy with that. We will avoid the hosts (South Africa), Ghana and Ivory Coast – which are all tough teams. We won’t have added pressure as we attempt to defend this title. We played against Ghana in the semi-finals in Gabon and Ivory Coast in the final. It would be great to face teams we haven’t played in a while because that could be our motivation. It could lift our game because we don’t know much about those teams.” Bwalya though, conceded he doesn’t want to see Zambia in a tough group. “We don’t want a group of death, no. But having said that, every game is tough. We will have to be thoroughly prepared.” Zambia will be based at Mbombela/Nelspruit along with other Group C teams, which Bwalya welcomed. He and Zambia’s French coach, Herve Renard, have already viewed facilities at South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, of which Mbombela is the capital. “We went there with Herve, and that pitch looks good. It should enable us to play the kind of football we want. We always go for attacking, entertaining football, and that should help us attract fans. We want to emerge as southern Africa’s hope in this tournament. A lot of Zambians want to come to South Africa to support us and I envisage that we should be able to see about 10 000 of them at every one of our games. The weather at Mbombela is also almost the same as in Zambia, so it should suit us perfectly,” Bwalya said.