Africa: Totalenergies Women's Champions League - Cosafa Region Crowns New Champions

14 August 2022
Confederation of African Football (Giza)

Green Buffaloes has dethroned Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies in the COSAFA CAF Women's Champions League qualifiers.

It took the Zambian side sudden death to fend off the defending champions in the regional with a 6-5 winning score after the match ended in a goalless stalemate. The matched finished 0-0 after 120 minutes and both sides still looked determined to be crowned queens of the south of Africa.

After Chuene Morifi missed her penalty, Joana Benaya made sure Buffaloes walked away as winners, hitting the net to guarantee the trophy of the southern region.

Buffaloes coach, Haalubono Charles, is pleased that his side was able to hold its nerve and break the defending champions in the contest.

"This is the big team we have in Africa, they are so good. They are able to move the ball and keep possession which makes opponents to suffer like we did. They had a red card but it looked like they had added one player, this shows how organised the team is. We started with high pressing and later on we started suffering so we have learnt something on game management, when to press and when to control our players and game," says Charles.

Sundowns Ladies coach, Jerry Tshabalala was disappointed by the results especially after five of his stars played in the recent women's Afcon.

"We lost against a very good side. When you looked at the game before even we got to extra time, it was a game of two halves, I think they prepared quite well. At some point in the first half there were times where they were pressing us with three strikers and we needed to rely more on our keeper. We had a better second half and I told my players that with the intensity of the game there was no way we could last and it really showed in the last 20 minutes of the game. Credit must go to my players, after receiving the red card we still managed to press them high," says Tshabalala.

However both teams have qualified for the TotalEnergies CAF Women's Champions League finals in Morocco later this year and will represent the Cosafa region in the continental showpiece.

Individual awards:

Fair Play- Double Action (Botswana)

Player of the tournament: Melinda Kgadiete (South Africa)

Golden Booth: Ireen Lungu (Zambia)

Golden glove: Aisah Mbwana (Zambia)

Read the original article on CAF.

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