Africa-Press – Botswana. Ghana’s 4-1 win against Tanzania, in a TotalEnergies WAFCON game played on Monday shattered Senior women national football team, The Mares quarterfinals qualification dreams.
A draw against the two sides would have saved the Mares to progress to the quarterfinals. Botswana finished third in group B.
In group A Morocco and Zambia progressed with Senegal making it through the quarterfinals as third best. From Group B, Algeria and Nigeria, also progressed to quarterfinals, while in Group C, South Africa, and Ghana also qualified, and Mali made it as the third best.
Despite failing to progress to the next stage, there are positives to pick from the squad, and should they be supported and remain compact, they have potential to challenge for honours in the coming years.
The Mares travelled with new players, Jessica Maponga, Oratile Rathari, Peggy Manewe and Jessica Modise, who proved to be the future Botswana stars, given that they were given exposure, and they now know what to expect the big stage.
Head coach, Alex Malete said in an interview that failure to progress to the quarterfinals was a sad day for Botswana and women’s football, especially after winning for the first time against a Northern African country, in WAFCON.
“If I look back and reflect on our games, I would say we started very slowly, but we grew with the competition, we were not the luckiest, looking at how we conceded against Nigeria and the chances we missed, and in our first match against Algeria,” he said.
The coach however said, he was proud of the players given that they played for the badge, and they were all positive, looking forward to qualify for the knockout stages.
Malete said now it was time to regroup and plan for the future, adding that young players who travelled with the team demonstrated that the future was in good hands. “They now know what it takes to compete at the highest level, and they had shown the personality, hunger and character,” he said. The players he said, demonstrated that they belong at the top.
He thanked all for supporting the team. “Assistant Minister Lawrence Ookeditse was here, the BFA president and most importantly the three supporters who travelled all the way from Botswana to watch all our group stage matches,” he said.
Malete said supporters had written their names in their hearts and would always remember them. Malete said he was happy that the tournament had shown that as a country, they have what it takes to compete at the highest level, adding that now they have to prepare for 2028 qualifiers.
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