COSAFA teams off to good start in 2019 Afcon campaign
Confederations of Southern African Football Association (COSAFA) teams have started their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) campaigns for Cameroon on a promising note.
COSAFA teams like South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), Mozambique and Madagascar registered their wins on away and home games.
Countries like Zambia, Swaziland, Angola Seychelles suffered defeats and they need to pull up their socks in their next group fixtures in March 2018.
The COSAFA encounter involving Tanzania and Lesotho ended in 1-1 draw and this has put the two countries on a lighter note their group.
Malawi won at home 1-0 against Comoros in Group B encounter played in Lilongwe and Malawi is second in the group with three points.
Bafana Bafana of South Africa registered their first win in a competitive match over Nigeria in Uyo with a 2-0 beating and is second in the group following Libya’s victory over Seychelles 5-1.
The Warriors of Zimbabwe hammered Liberia 3-0 in Harare in their group G game and the same group, DRC silenced their neighbour Congo with a 3-0 in Kinshasa.
Zimbabwe was the only COSAFA representative in the last edition for the AFCON where they were booted out in the group stage of the competition in Gabon 2017 final.
The mamba’s of Mozambique pulled a surprise win over fellow COSAFA and neighbour Zambia away from home with a narrow 1-0 win just five minutes to time. It was a sweet revenge for the Mamba’s after they were also humiliated at home some three years during the same AFCON qualifiers.
Madagascar won away in Sudan 3-1 in Group A tussle and they are second to Senegal who beat Equatorial Guinea 3-1 in Dakar.
It was bad start for 2012 AFCON Champions Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Seychelles as they recorded loses while Tanzania, Lesotho and Swaziland got a point each.
Namibia were beaten 1-0 by Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso beat Angola 3-1.
The weekend saw home defeats of Ivory Coast to Guinea 2-3, Zambia to Mozambique 0-1, Sudan to Madagascar 1-3, Cape Verde to Uganda 0-1 and Botswana to Mauritania 0-1.
There were home wins for Cameroon 1-0 to Morocco, Burundi 3-1 against South Sudan, Mali were 2 -1 victors over Gabon, Guinea Bissau silenced Namibia 1-0, Central African Republic 2-1 against Rwanda, Benin chopped Gambia 1-0, Ghana whitewashed Ethiopia 5-0, Algeria 1-0 to Togo, Tunisia humbled Egypt 1-0 and Sierra Leone clobbered Kenya 2-1.
The next group fixtures are scheduled for March, 2018.
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