{"id":150465,"date":"2026-04-08T15:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/serengeti-girls-in-francistown-ahead-of-wc-qualifier"},"modified":"2026-04-08T17:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:04:01","slug":"serengeti-girls-in-francistown-ahead-of-wc-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/serengeti-girls-in-francistown-ahead-of-wc-qualifier","title":{"rendered":"Serengeti Girls in Francistown ahead of WC qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Tanzania. <\/strong> <\/span>NATION Under-17 Girls\u2019 Football Team, the Serengeti Girls, arrived safely in Francistown, Botswana, yesterday, ahead of their first match in the qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The team touched down from Monastir, Tunisia, where they spent around 10 days in a training camp, playing two friendly matches against Tunisia, winning 3-0 in their first meeting on March 29th before a goalless draw last Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on arrival, Head Coach Bakari Shime said he was pleased with the squad\u2019s preparations. \u201cOur time in Tunisia has strengthened the team, and I am confident we can get positive results against our opponents, Botswana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Team captain Harrier Juma echoed his coach\u2019s optimism, adding, \u201cThe guidance from our coach has helped us improve and grow as a team. We know the match will not be easy, but we are excited to follow in the footsteps of our predecessors who qualified for the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first qualifying match is scheduled for Saturday, with the team set to return home on April 19. If Tanzania secures aggregate victory against Botswana, they will face South Africa in the next round and potentially the winner of the Kenya-Uganda clash.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup finals are set to be held in Morocco later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Tanzania<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Tanzania. NATION Under-17 Girls\u2019 Football Team, the Serengeti Girls, arrived safely in Francistown, Botswana, yesterday, ahead of their first match in the qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup. The team touched down from Monastir, Tunisia, where they spent around 10 days in a training camp, playing two friendly matches against Tunisia, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":150464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[711],"class_list":["post-150465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-tanzania"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Serengeti Girls in Francistown ahead of WC qualifier - Tanzania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Tanzania. 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