A goal seconds before halftime from Luvuyo Mkatshana gave South Africa a narrow 1-0 victory over Mozambique in their 2017 Mopani Copper Mines COSAFA Under-20 Championships Group B clash at the Nkana Stadium in Kitwe on Sunday.
The victory, coupled with a 2-0 success for Egypt over Mauritius earlier in the day, sets up a winner-takes-all showdown between Amajita and the Young Pharaohs on Monday.
Both teams have six points from their two pool matches so far, and each have scored three goals and conceded none. Mozambique and Mauritius have both been eliminated.
In a match of few clear-cut chances, South Africa’s Lyle Foster headed over in the first period, before the five-time winners did hit the front with Mkatshana’s excellent strike.
Foster was then denied by Mozambique goalkeeper Victor Gumbe in what would prove the final chance of the game.
Egypt secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Mauritius thanks to a brace of goals from forward Abdelrahman Amr.
The North African guest nation were always in control of the encounter and have now not only secured two wins, but also two clean-sheets as they showed great organisation and tactical excellence.
After Amr put them ahead with a neat finish on 17 minutes, before Mauritian substitute goalkeeper Jean Georges made a fine stop to deny Roshdi Ashraf, and then denied Amr from close-range.
Mauritius had a better opening the second half as Aurelien Perle saw his header blocked and Jean Sarah flashed a shot inches wide.
The latter was then involved in the second for Egypt though as his defensive slip allowed Amr to take possession and secure his brace.
Things went from bad to worse for Sarah in injury-time when he collected a second yellow card and was sent off.
The action resumes on Sunday with two matches in Group C. Namibia, victors in their opener against Angola on Friday, will seek to make it two wins from two when they take on Lesotho (kick-off 12h00 local; 10h00 GMT). Lesotho held Zimbabwe in their first game and will be no pushovers.
Zimbabwe will seek to give their semifinal hopes a boost when they clash with Angola in the second game of the day (kick-off 15h00 local; 13h00 GMT).
With only the top team in each pool and the best placed runner-up advancing to the semifinals, this could be a crucial round of games in the pool.
SATURDAY’S RESULTS
Group B
Egypt 2 (Amr 17’, 88’) Mauritius 0
Mozambique 0 South Africa 1 (Mkatshana 45’)
SUNDAY’S FIXTURES
Group C
12h00 (10h00 GMT): Namibia vs Lesotho – Nkana Stadium
15h00 (13h00 GMT): Zimbabwe vs Angola – Nkana Stadium
STANDINGS
Group A P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Uganda 2 1 1 0 4 2 +2 4
Malawi 2 1 1 0 3 2 +1 4
Swaziland 2 0 1 1 4 5 -1 1
Zambia 2 0 1 1 0 2 -2 1
Group B P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Egypt 2 2 0 0 3 0 +3 6
South Africa 2 2 0 0 3 0 +3 6
Mozambique 2 0 0 2 0 2 -2 0
Mauritius 2 0 0 2 0 4 -4 0
Group C P W D L GF GA GD Pts
Namibia 1 1 0 0 1 0 +1 3
Lesotho 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Zimbabwe 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Angola 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
TOURNAMENT STATS
Matches Played: 10
Goals scored: 18
Biggest victory: Zambia 0 Uganda 2 (Group A, December 6)
Most goals in a game: 5 – Swaziland 2 Malawi 3 (Group A, December 6)
GOALSCORERS
3 goals – Muhammad Shaban (Uganda)
2 – Abdelrahman Amr (Egypt), Lyle Foster (South Africa), Order Mamba (Swaziland), Patrick Phiri (Malawi), Muzi Tsabedze (Swaziland)
1 – Hussein Abdelkader (Egypt), Peter Banda (Malawi), Luvuyo Mkatshana (South Africa), Enzo Mungendje (Namibia), Allan Okello (Uganda)
