ESWATINI FACE MOZ IN COSAFA U-20S

MBABANE – The country’s national Under-20 Men’s squad will start their journey to the 2025 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) against Mozambique on September 26, 2024 at the ABB Stadium.

The Mduduzi ‘Skhalo’ Nxumalo-coached youth squad are currently preparing for the tournament which acts as qualifiers for the TotalEnergies AFCON Under-20 Championships to be played next year in a country yet to be communicated by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The tournament, which is under the banner of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) will be hosted by Mozambique as of September 26 to October 5, 2024.

According to the fixture, which was released by COSAFA through the officer of Media Manager Lynda Greeff, Eswatini, who are in Group A will go head-to-head with the host nation Mozambique in match penned to kick-off at 3pm. The opening game will see Zimbabwe clashing with Botswana at noon and these matches will all be played at ABB Stadium One.
The local juniors will be on the pitch two days later at the ABB Stadium Two, this time welcoming Zimbabwe in a game penned to start at noon. Eswatini will conclude the group stages fixtures against Botswana on September 30, 2024 at the same venue. The game will commence at 3pm.

Advancing

It is worth mentioning that the group stages run through October 1, 2024, with the top team in each pool and the best placed runners-up across the three groups advancing to the semi-finals. The two teams to reach the final of this year’s edition will represent COSAFA in the 2025 TotalEnergies AFCON Under-20 Championships that is scheduled to be played next year.
Coach Nxumalo, on the other hand, said it w as good to open the tournament against the host nation so that by the time the other opponents notice how the team play, they would have already caused the damage on the home side.

“We know Botswana as we recently played them in friendly matches and we also have an idea of how Zimbabwe play as we faced them during the Independence celebrations,” Nxumalo said. He further highlighted that looking at the time frame before the tournament starts; they would not be able to play international friendly games. “We were supposed to play Mozambique, but after seeing the draw they decided against that proposed match,” he said.

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