Council of Southern African Football Assocations (Johannesburg)

Southern Africa: Cosafa Cup 2013 - Day 8 Preview

Lesotho will be seeking to keep up their giant killing run at the Cosafa Cup on Sunday when they take on Angola in the first of two quarter-finals in Kitwe.

Their match at the Nkana Stadium is followed by the belated, and much anticipated, entry into the tournament of hosts Zambia, who take on Mozambique in the second game on the double header bill.

Lesotho qualified for the last eight by finishing top of Group B, ousting the more fancied Botswana and Kenya in a dramatic finish on Thursday.

It has come as a major morale booster to the mountain kingdom, who now look to add the scalp of the young Angola side to the list of their victims at the tournament in Zambia.

"A very good result but I somehow expected it. Though it was not a walk in the park, my boys were always outside favourites to reach the last eight," asserted the Basotho coach Leslie Notsi.

"Though I know very little about our next opponents Angola, Sunday should provide a treat for soccer fans because we want to attack and attack. We are not going to sit back and expect them to make mistakes.

We will take the game to them and be adventurous. That is the culture I am trying to inculcate in this squad."

Lesotho have had past success over the Angola in the tournament when the reached the final in 2000, the best achievement for the country in an international event.

Angola have opted to bring their Olympic team to Zambia for the tournament and will be unknown not only to the Basotho coach but to almost everyone else, likely even their own coach Gustavo Ferrin.

Zambia have three past wins in the regional championship and are favourites for the 2013 event given they have home advantage, although without all of their foreign-based contingent.

Coach Herve Renard will be hoping to uncover talent that he could use in September when Zambia attempt to save their World Cup qualification hopes.

Four of his players o Sunday will come from home team Nkana FC, including defender Masauso Zimba, who is a late call-up.

Mozambique have not beaten Zambia in 15 previous meetings. The last meeting was in Chingola in the African Nations Cup qualifiers two years which Zambia won comfortably 3-0.

  • Comment

Copyright © 2013 Council of Southern African Football Assocations. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Comments Post a comment

InFocus

Southern Africans in Soccer Faceoff

Kenya And Swaziland Contest Cosafa Cup

Southern African nations are contesting the quarterfinals of the Cosafa Cup in Zambia this weekend. Read more »