Mauritius missed out on the chance to advance to the semifinals of the 2023 Cosafa Cup after they suffered a 1-0 defeat against Mozambique at the Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu on Wednesday afternoon.
Club M needed to beat the Mambas by four goals to finish ahead of Zambia as the best second-placed team, but they failed to even get on the scoresheet as Ali Abudo's 38th-minute strike settled the contest on the KZN coast.
The Indian Ocean islanders ended up bottom of the group, one point behind Chiquinho Conde's side, who finished level with Angola in third position.
Mozambique bossed proceedings from the get-go and they looked far more dangerous throughout in a bid to pick up their first win in the competition.
The breakthrough came in the 38th minute and it was an exquisite goal as Martinho played in Abudo on the left and he proceeded to lob Kevin Jean-Louis with just one touch from an acute angle to put the Mambas in front.
Mauritius had a glorious chance to level matters before halftime when Fernando Jackson was sent clean through on goal with a ball over the top, but he could only fire straight into the legs of Fazito from 12 yards out.
The Southern Africans pushed for more goals in the second half but they found Jean-Louis in fine form as he looked to keep his team in the match.
Danilo set up Shaquille with a low cross towards the near post from the left, but Jean-Louis pulled off a sharp reaction save and Isac was unfortunate to strike his teammate in the face on the rebound when he looked certain to score.
Jean-Louis then denied Dayo Antonio with another superb save after the substitute made contact with Nelson Divrassone's in-swinging free-kick from the left that was aimed towards the far post.
Mauritius (0) 0
Mozambique (1) 1 (Abudo 38')
Mauritius: K. Jean-Louis, D. Balisson, F. Rasolofonirina, E. Vincent, J. Francois, F. Jackson (Aurelien Francois 69'), D. Aristide (Y. Aristide 77'), A. Langue, Adrien Francois (K. Saramandif 69'), W. Moutou, A. Nazira (A. Botlar 77').
Mozambique: Fazito, Danilo, Martinho, Nene, Chamboco, Telinho (Joao Bonde 64'), Shaquille, E. Machava (Amadou 74'), G. Lorenzoni (N. Divrassone 59'), A. Abudo (D. Melo 59'), Isac (D. Antonio 64').