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Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE and Botswana will meet in the opening game of the TotalEnergies CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations 2025 — COSAFA Qualifier on September 26.
The game will mark the start of the Southern African teams’ journey towards qualification for the continental finals scheduled for next year. The Young Warriors and the Young Zebras clash in a Group A fixture that is pencilled in for a mid-day kick-off which will be followed by a meeting between hosts Mozambique and Eswatini at 3pm. Madagascar have withdrawn from the competition, which leaves only three teams in Group B, as record 12-time winners Zambia and Angola kick-off that pool in a heavyweight clash a day later at 3pm.
The first games in Group C will also be played on the same day as eight-time winners South Africa play Malawi at 3pm in a showdown that will be preceded by the clash between Comoros and Lesotho at 12 noon.
The group stages run through to October 1, with the top team in each pool and the best-placed runners-up across the three groups advancing to the semi-finals.
There will be a two-day rest period before the semi-finals are played on October 3 with the final scheduled for two days later.
There is no bronze medal match.
The two teams that reach the final will qualify for next year’s TotalEnergies CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations.
Zimbabwe have won the COSAFA Under-20 six times and will be keen to turn back the hands of time to 2007 when they last won their regional title. They dominated the early years of the COSAFA Under-20 regional competition along with neighbours Zambia, who were the more dominant. The Zambians won six and Zimbabwe three of the first nine tournaments.
South Africa were the first team to break the mould when they triumphed in 2000, having been losing finalists in 1995 and 1999.
A year earlier, in 1999, they had taken over the hosting of the event, which before then had been spread around the region.
Each tournament up until 2009 was held in South Africa but the winners were less easy to predict. Madagascar became only the fourth country to win the event when they surprisingly triumphed in 2005, beating shock finalists Lesotho 1-0 in the final.
Mozambique added their name to the trophy when they lifted the 2020 edition and are now hoping for a repeat on home soil.
Online Reporter