COSAFA sides baffle for U17 Afcon places

The remaining COSAFA sides in the 2017 African Under-17 Championships qualifiers will be in action this weekend as they seek to advance to the final round of the preliminaries.

COSAFA Under-17 Championship winners Namibia were beaten 2-1 at home by Congo-Brazzaville in the first leg of their tie and face elimination from the competition unless they can overturn that result away.

South Africa were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Tanzania in the first leg of their tie and have it all to do in the return in Dar es Salaam.

Angola edged COSAFA rivals Mauritius 1-0 in their first fixture played away from home and will be favourites to complete the job at home.

Another all-COSAFA tie saw the Comoros Islands win 2-1 at home to Mozambique, but they will face a tough task to keep hold of that advantage.

Zambia were held 0-0 by Sudan at home and now have a daunting away journey to Khartoum.

The ties will be played this coming weekend, with the final round for qualifiers set for next month.

One COSAFA side is guaranteed to make the finals as Madagascar will host the event in April next year.