Zim meet Botswana in quarter-finals of Cosafa

The Zebras booked their place in the last eight of the tournament after winning Group B following a 2-0 victory over whipping boys Seychelles in their final group game at Barbourfields yesterday.

The Zebras completed their preliminary round fixtures with seven points, after two wins and a draw, and pushed Swaziland into second place after Sihlangu ended their campaign with six points.

Swaziland finally put the Comoros in their right place, destroying the little islanders 3-0 at Barbourfields, but that victory was too little, too late, to give Shakes Mashaba and his men a ticket into the quarter-finals.

Sihlangu were always fighting a tough battle, especially after losing 0-1 to rivals Botswana in the key Group B game, and that loss returned to haunt them yesterday as they could only finish second on the table despite having the best strikeforce.

The Swazi strikers scored five goals, the best tally in the group, but their barren spell against Botswana when it mattered most meant that Sihlangu were eliminated with the Zebras going through to a meeting with hosts Zimbabwe who qualified after pipping Lesotho who failed to beat Mauritius by a goal margin of more than three goals to qualify. Lesotho were restricted to a narrow1-0 victory.

With Botswana and the Comoros having four points each going into the final round of fixtures, the team that won its game always stood a better chance of qualifying and the Zebras duly delivered by beating Seychelles 2-0.

Indian Ocean islanders, the Comoros, could have forced a toss of the coin to decide who qualifies from Group B had they beaten Swaziland and ended with the same number of points as Botswana.

However, the Comoros fair-tale run in the tournament, where their brave campaign won them the hearts of many neutrals, finally came to an end when they crashed to a 0-3 defeat at the hands of Swaziland.