Namibia and Zambia booked their places in the semifinals of the Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup 2022 with contrasting victories in their quarterfinal clashes at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban on Tuesday.
Namibia defeated Madagascar 2-0 to advance to the next stage, where they will face the winner of Wednesday’s clash between defending champions South Africa and Mozambique.
Zambia needed penalties to see off Botswana following a 1-1 draw and now await the victor between west African guest nation Senegal and Eswatini.
Botswana were unlucky to fall behind as a cut-back from Zambian forward Ricky Banda struck defender Tebogo Kopelang and rebounded past helpless Zebras goalkeeper Goitseone Phoko.
Zambia spurned a few chances after that, and Botswana were level on 53 minutes with a cracking strike.
A ball flashed across the Zambian goal reached left-back Benson Mangolo and his strike with his less favoured right foot arrowed into the top corner.
Both sides hit the post in the game, but the match went to penalties, and Mangolo turned villain as he struck his spot-kick wide to allow Zambia a 5-4 victory.
Namibia brushed aside Madagascar in their quarterfinal, with the islanders making a first appearance at the competition since 2018.
The Malagasy players only arrived in Durban on Tuesday morning so were on the back foot from the start, and in truth never quite got to grips with the Brave Warriors.
After a goalless first half, Absalom Iimbondi put Namibia in front from the penalty-spot, before Rudath Wendell added a second from an impossibly tight angle midway through the second period.
Madagascar were down to 10 men when Rojo Andriamanjato received his marching orders for a second bookable offence and it could have little complaints after a wild challenge that might have been deserving of a red card on its own.
The last two quarterfinal games will be played on Wednesday as west African guest nation Senegal enter the fray against this year’s Group B winners Eswatini (kick-off 2pm CAT), also at the King Zwelithini Stadium.
It is a repeat of their semifinal last year where Senegal triumphed on penalties following a hard-fought 2-2 draw, and Eswatini will certainly be out for revenge.
Senegal went on to get silver 12 months ago and Eswatini finished with bronze.
Defending champions South Africa meet Mozambique (5pm CAT) in the semifinals this year in what is also a repeat of a semifinal in 2021. On that occasion Bafana Bafana triumphed 3-0, but this is a much more youthful selection at the tournament this year.
Meanwhile, The winning team in this year’s Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup 2022 will receive R500 000 in prize-money to go with the coveted trophy.
The runner-up will earn R250 000, while the team that takes bronze gets R150 000 and the fourth placed side go home with R100 000.
There will also be individual honours up for grabs, each of which come with a R20 000 prize. These are Player of the Tournament, Golden Boot for top-scorer and Goalkeeper of the Tournament. There is also a Fair Play award for teams.