Botswana and Namibia head into today’s Cosafa Women’s Championship clash in Johannesburg looking to improve on last year’s performances. The Brave Gladiators reached the semi-finals last year where they narrowly lost 1-0 to hosts South Africa and then 2-1 to Tanzania in the third-place play-off.
Namibia has been to three semis across seven tournament appearances and made it to one final, which was during their debut campaign in 2006 when hosts South Africa stood between them and gold with a 3-1 win.
A win over their neighbours will set them on the path to mirroring that run to the semis and possibly beyond, while it lessens the pressure for the subsequent Group C clashes against Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
Today’s rivals, The Mares from Botswana are presently one of the top women’s sides in the region and on the continent. Their steady progress over the past decade culminated in reaching the quarter-finals at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
That showing was particularly impressive given that it was their debut appearance at the African women’s football showpiece event.
They went unbeaten at the Cosafa championship last year, but draws with Malawi (1-1) and Tanzania (0-0), and a 6-0 win over Comoros, proved not enough to progress from their pool.
With their ascent as a force to be reckoned with, Botswana are among the favourites to fight for Cosafa honours this time around. They are on a mission to emerge from the group phase and improve upon the 2020 runners-up finish.
The tournament got underway on Wednesday with Eswatini edging Madagascar 2-1 in the opener before Malawi stunned South Africa 4-3.
Yesterday, Angola thrashed Comoros 5-0 in the early kick off, with Zambia getting their title defence in motion with a routine (2-0) beating of Mozambique.
The group stages continue until the final round of matches on Wednesday, before the semi-finals are played two days later.
The winners of Group A will play the best runner-up across the three pools, while the top two teams from Group B and Group C meet in the other semi-final.
The third-place playoffs and final will be staged on Sunday, 15 October.
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