Botswana triumphed 2-0 over Mauritius to get their first win, while South Africa beat Comoros 3-0 at the University of Johannesburg’s AW Muller Stadium.
Having won two games, South Africa lead Group C with six points while Botswana are second with three after a win and a loss. Mauritius and Comoros have collected one point each and the former conceded two goals while the latter conceded three in their second games.
Offensively, Botswana’s central defenders, Baisana Mozila and Phenyo Lekgetho, played vertical and diagonal passes behind the compact but disorganized Mauritius defence to exploit the space they left between them and the goalkeeper.
Agile attacking midfielder, Tliso Moshaoa, gave Mauritius defenders a torrid time with his dribbling skills. In the 18th minute, he provided a brilliantly-weighted line-breaking pass to KgosiTshidi who netted the first goal for Botswana from inside the penalty area.
Mauritius tried to progress play up the pitch through the midfield where Jean Vieille, Emanuel Annehel Anna and Aaron Leong operated but they lost possession cheaply and constantly put the back four under unnecessary pressure because they had to defend facing their own goalposts.
They kept losing possession needlessly but Botswana did not capitalize on this as they also released the ball erratically after winning it. Mauritius striker, Julian Rabaye made good off the ball runs and his teammates tried to locate him with long passes but he was outnumbered so he was not impactful.
Botswana piled pressure on Mauritius although indecisiveness in the penalty area let them down. However, in the 90th minute, Kgosi Tshidi completed his brace to seal a victory for Botswana.
