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Following Madagascar’s late withdrawal, the Cosafa Cup organisers have been obliged to change the 2021 Cosafa Cup schedule and structure.
After failing to secure travel on Monday, the island nation had no option but to pull out of the 20th edition, hosted at Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa from July 6 to 18.
Their withdrawal came only two days after Comoros did the same, citing Covid-19’s strict restrictions in their nation.
Cosafa has announced that they have been left with no option but to modify the format, which will now have two groups of five teams instead of the original three. Fans across Africa can make their predictions via the Betway app as the tournament gets underway.
“The late withdrawal of Madagascar from the Cosafa Cup has forced a change to the format of the competition, which will now have two groups of five teams each,” Cosafa announced in an official statement on their website.
“Madagascar had been unable to secure their travel to Nelson Mandela Bay for the July 6-18 tournament which, following the decision of Comoros Islands not to come, left the original Group B with only Zambia and Malawi.
“And so, the original format of a three-group competition has been simplified into two pools, with the top two nations in each group advancing to the semi-finals.
“Cosafa conducted a draw to place Zambia and Malawi in the new respective Groups A and B, doing so in the presence of representatives for the 10 remaining teams and the local organising committee.
“The draw placed defending champions Zambia in Group A along with hosts South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini. That means Malawi will be in the ‘new’ Group B, which also contains West African guest nations Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Mozambique.”
Meanwhile, the competition kicked off on Tuesday, with Eswatini taking against Lesotho first, followed by hosts South Africa taking on Namibia.
South Africa and Eswatini Register Wins in Cosafa Cup Openers
South Africa defeated Botswana 1-0 on Tuesday, while Eswatini defeated Lesotho 3-1 on the first day of the 2021 COSAFA Cup in Nelson Mandela Bay, with substitute Kagiso Malinga scoring on his debut. For those who had placed wagers with Betway, the odds for Ewatini were favourable before the sending off, and must have reaped huge returns following the results.
South Africa featured a much-changed lineup for the tournament, but they still managed to win the closely-contested Group A game.
In the second half, Botswana’s Mbatshi Elias hit the crossbar with the Bafana Bafana goalkeeper well beaten, but the home team seized the lead a few minutes later.
Malinga appeared to have been pushed wide by the Botswana defence, but he still managed to squeeze the ball past goalkeeper Ezekiel Morake.
Meanwhile, Eswatini defeated Lesotho 3-1, making Badenhorst the COSAFA Cup’s all-time best scorer with nine goals. That’s one more than the great Peter Ndlovu of Zimbabwe.
Badenhorst scored the game’s first goal with a spectacular free-kick past Lesotho goalkeeper Sekhoane Moerane at the near post.
Lesotho had been reduced to ten players earlier in the game when Jane Thaba-Ntso, who scored the quickest goal in COSAFA Cup history after 34 seconds, was sent off for a reckless lunge inside the first six minutes.
Tumelo Khutlang equalized with another stunning free-kick just before halftime to bring Lesotho level.
In the second half, Eswatini made their numerical superiority count, as Khetokhule Mkhontfo scored from close range after Lesotho failed to clear a long throw, and Fanelo Mamba added a third with 12 minutes remaining.
The competition runs until July 18, and Betway will continue to bring exclusive markets for each game.
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