SIHLANGU FACE LESOTHO IN COSAFA OPENER

MBABANE – This will now be a day earlier than initially scheduled as a kick-off date for the COSAFA Cup 2021 tournament in South Africa.

The competition with 12 countries that were drawn into three groups of four including African giants Senegal as guest nation last Thursday and anticipated to kick off the tournament on July 7 until July 18 in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela Bay. As COSAFA released the fixtures yesterday, it was confirmed that the tournament would now kick off a day earlier and group A which has Eswatini (Sihlangu Semnikati) will be in the grand opening.

Rivals

Eswatini starts off against 146th world-ranked Lesotho at 2pm inside the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium before South Africa face bitter rivals in Botswana who are led by former South Africa Under-20 squad coach Letang Kgengwenyane at 5pm. Groups B and C will follow on July 7 and July 8 respectively before the second fixtures get underway whereby Eswatini will next face the tough South Africans three days after the Lesotho match at Isaac Wolfson Stadium at 3pm while Botswana and Lesotho also clash at noon in the same venue. The last game for Sihlangu will be Botswana on July 13 at 3pm inside the Isaac Wolfson arena.

Worth mentioning is that Botswana are ranked four places better than Eswatini at 150 while South Africa are the highest ranked in the group at position 75. Also, West African giants Senegal, who played Sihlangu twice in the recent Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2022 Qualifiers, will start against Namibia in Group C on July 8. Sihlangu coach Dominic Kunene said they were aware of the fixtures and as were also going to have camp ahead of the trip and prepare for the competition.

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