Botswana Women's U17 eye SA scalp in World Cup qualifier

Monday Oct 30, 2017. 12:00

Botswana Under-17 Women's team stunned their Zambian counterparts in the 2018 FIFA U17 Women's World Cup qualifier on Friday.

Zambia, who had won 5-2 in the first-leg clash in Lusaka, suffered a 4-0 defeat to Botswana in the second-leg match in Lobatse.

As a result, Botswana won 6-5 on aggregate and they advanced to the first round where they will take on South Africa next month.

The winner on aggregate will take on either Morocco or Equatorial Guinea in the second round in February, 2018.

The Botswana Football Association (BFA) released the following statement after the match between Botswana and Zambia:

A statement read: "National Under 17 Women coach Odirile Mathaku says after taking over as head coach, it was key to win the confidence of the technical team first and restore their self believe and when he had that he let it float to the players.

"'China' as he is popularly known said the result where always turnable looking at the second half performance in Zambia as the girls had snatched two valuable away goals in that period of the game. Mathaku told the BFA website that wining was not important but giving the players experience.

"The girls had to fight and apply themselves which is very important in their football development. The same team crushed to Kenya in the under 20 World Cup Qualifiers and hence they had now some international experience to guide them.

"China says the game plan of two early goals was key as it kept Zambia under a lot of pressure. They didn’t know whether to attack or defend, they panicked and we scored our third goal soon after halftime.

"Botswana won 4-0 on the day and 6-5 on aggregate. The winner between Botswana and South Africa will go to the next round of qualification and move a step closer to qualification of Uruguay 2018."