TotalEnergies CAF U-20 AFCON Ghana 2027 | COSAFA Qualifier by the numbers
The TotalEnergies CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations Ghana 2027 | COSAFA Qualifier produced goals, drama and several standout individual performances before South Africa retained their regional crown with victory over hosts Mozambique in the final.
A total of 22 matches produced 73 goals at an impressive average of 3.32 per game, while South Africa and Mozambique claimed the two qualification places available to the COSAFA region for next year’s continental finals in Ghana.
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South Africa and Mozambique were the two teams to secure places at the TotalEnergies CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations Ghana 2027.
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Namibia were flawless defensively during the group stage, winning all three of their matches without conceding a goal. Their fortunes changed in the knockout rounds, however, as they lost 3-0 to Mozambique in the semi-finals and by the same scoreline against Zambia in the third-place play-off.
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Zambia ended the tournament with four victories from five matches. The Junior Chipolopolo won all three of their group games before losing 4-2 to South Africa in the semi-finals, but responded by defeating Namibia 3-0 to secure the bronze medal.
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Four individual and team awards were presented. Mozambique’s Alírio Cuna was named Player of the Tournament, Steven Mendes took the Golden Boot for his six goals scored, South Africa goalkeeper Takalani Mazhamba won the Golden Glove and Namibia received the Fair Play Award.
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South Africa completed a perfect campaign with five victories from five matches, culminating in a 2-1 win over Mozambique in the final. Amajita won all three of their group matches before defeating Zambia 4-2 in the semi-finals and overcoming the hosts in the decider.
5-0
The biggest winning margin was five goals and it was achieved twice. Mozambique defeated Mauritius 5-0 in Group A on September 22, while Angola matched that scoreline against Lesotho in Group B the following day.
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Steven Mendes finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with six goals and collected the Golden Boot. The South Africa forward saved some of his most important contributions for the knockout stages, scoring two penalties in the 4-2 semi-final victory over Zambia before converting the decisive spot-kick against Mozambique in the final. Mendes accounted for almost half of South Africa’s 13 goals during the tournament.
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The highest-scoring match produced seven goals as Seychelles edged Mauritius 4-3 in Group A on September 20. It was the only game in the tournament to reach seven goals.
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South Africa scored 13 goals across their five matches while conceding only three. They began the competition with three successive clean sheets before being tested by Zambia and Mozambique in the knockout rounds. Interestingly, Mozambique also finished with 13 goals. They scored nine in the group stage, three in their semi-final victory over Namibia and one against South Africa in the final.
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There were 48 different individual goalscorers during the competition. A further goal came via an own goal from Comoros player Fayyad Issilamou-Hamza, meaning the 73 tournament goals were spread across 49 different scoring contributions.
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That was the total number of goals scored in the 22 matches. The average of 3.32 goals per game underlined the attacking nature of the competition.
