Mozambique, Angola and South Africa sealed their places in the semifinals of the TotalEnergies U20 AFCON Egypt 2023 | COSAFA Qualifiers on Wednesday as the group phase in the regional championship came to an end in Eswatini.
Mozambique top Group B and South Africa end as the leading side in Group C, with Angola booking their place as the best runner-up across the three pools.
It means defending champions Mozambique will take on South Africa in Friday’s first semifinal (kick-off 12h00 CAT), with Group A winners Zambia to tackle the dangerous Angolans in the second fixture (15h30 CAT).
The winners of those ties will qualify for the TotalEnergies U20 AFCON Egypt 2023 early next year, which in turn acts as the qualifier for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup to be played in Indonesia later in 2023.
Mozambique booked their passage with a 2-1 victory over Lesotho to make in three wins from three in their pool as they seek to retain the title they won two years ago. Denio Munhave and Jose Zavala got their goals.
Angola sealed the best runner-up spot as they thumped Seychelles 8-1, with Danilson Makokisa netting a hattrick to take him joint top of the scorers charts along with Eswatini’s Mukelo Nkambule on four goals.
João De Brito also got a brace in a dominant performance from the Angolans, who served notice of their potential in this competition.
It was tight in Group C as South Africa, Malawi and Comoros all finished on six points in the pool, but South Africa advanced by virtue of the better head-to-head record among the three teams.
That came after their 4-0 victory over Comoros, handed to them by goals from Prince Manku, Mohau Nkota, Puso Dithejane and Relebohile Ratomo, which meant they had the better goal-difference.
Comoros had won their first two games but could not get the point they needed for a historic knockout stage place.
Malawi’s 5-2 win over Namibia proved in vain as they could only finish second in the pool.
Chikumbutso Salima scored a brace in the game as they finished on a high.
FRIDAY’S FIXTURES
Semifinals
12h00 CAT (10h00 GMT) – Mozambique vs South Africa – Somhlolo Stadium
15h30 CAT (13h30 GMT) – Zambia vs Angola – Somhlolo Stadium
