SIHLANGU FACE BOTSWANA IN COSAFA OPENER

MBABANE – Eswatini national team Sihlangu will start their 2023 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup campaign against Botswana on July 5, at King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban, South Africa.

This follows the fixture which the Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) released yesterday afternoon, about two weeks after the draw was conducted. The Dominic Kunene-led charges, who are in Group A, will face Namibia at the same venue three days later, in the second match of the tournament, before wrapping up the group stages against South Africa’s Bafana Bafana on July 11 at Princess Magogo Stadium. Group B comprises Seychelles, Zambia, Malawi and Comoros Islands. Seychelles and Comoros will kick start the 2023 tournament at King Zwelithini on July 5, before the match between Zambia and Malawi later on the day.

Reacting to the draw, Coach Kunene, in our sister publication, acknowledged that this was a tough draw for the country but said it was all down to intensified preparations to do better than last year, where Sihlangu lost in penalties to Senegal in the quarter-finals. Sihlangu recently had an international practice match against Lesotho at the Mavuso Sports Centre and will face the region’s best ranked teams in SA’s Bafana Bafana, who are ranked number one in COSAFA, while occupying the 12th spot in CAF and they are on position 66 globally. Sihlangu and Bafana met in the 2021 edition in the semi-finals. SA won 1-0.

The country’s second opponents in Namibia’s Brave Warriors are also not an easy side, as they were last year’s runners-up. They are ranked fourth, 12th and 106th in COSAFA, CAF and FIFA respectively. The least ranked team in the group is Botswana’s Zebras, who occupy position 13, 46 and 152 in COSAFA, CAF and FIFA respectively. Sihlangu are ranked 11th, 42nd and 144 in COSAFA, CAF and FIFA, on that order. Coach Kunene recently announced the squad that will be assigned for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifiers for the game against Togo. Focus will then shift to COSAFA, where Sihlangu will be looking to reach the finals of the tournament for the first time, having reached the semi-finals on two occasions.

Kunene’s charges secured a bronze medal in the 2021 edition after they were defeated by guest nation, Senegal in the quarter-finals. Senegal was also a guest nation in the previous edition; this time around COSAFA decided against the idea of having one. Meanwhile this year’s edition that will commence from July 5-16, the semi-finals and finals are billed for the King Zwelithini Stadium. The COSAFA Cup will be played under a new format of 12 teams to be split into three groups of four clubs each. The winner of each group and the best second-placed teams will qualify for the semi-finals. This year’s edition will be played without the Plate finals. At least three teams or countries were seeded based on their CAF ranking and these were South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique in Groups A, B and C, respectively.

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