A draw will be enough for the Zebras to seal qualification to the 2025 showpiece regardless of what happens in a clash between Cape Verde and Mauritania. The Zebras are on seven points while both Cape Verde and Mauritania are on four points. Egypt is already qualified leading Group C with 13 points. The Zebras can still lose and qualify when Cape Verde wins because they will be favoured by head-to-head results. However, if the Zebras lose to Egypt and Mauritania wins, the latter will qualify because of superior head-to-head results. Mauritania won the first leg of the qualifiers at home and drew the second leg last week Friday at Obed Itani Chilume Stadium. The Zebras have a not so convincing record against Egypt. The two sides met on six occasions across all competitions. The Pharaohs boast of an unbeaten record against the Zebras, having won five games and drawn one.
The last meeting between the two sides was last month, and Egypt walked away with a 4-0 win in an encounter that was played at the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium, a sobering reminder of the uphill task facing the Zebras. This was Botswana's biggest defeat by Egypt in many years. The other main challenge for the Zebras is that fullbacks, Mothusi Johnson and Alford Velaphi will miss the match on Saturday. The two players will be serving suspension for cumulative yellow cards. This was confirmed by the team’s head of delegation, Carlos Motaung, in an interview yesterday. Perhaps the only relief for the Zebras might be that Egypt have not called several key players including Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah as the team has already qualified. “The atmosphere in the camp is fine. We trained on Sunday evening. We will have another training session at the match venue this evening (Monday). Apart from suspensions, we have some players who have picked knocks. We are waiting for a report from the technical team, but we are hopeful that they will feature tomorrow,” Motaung said.
Zebras interim coach, Morena Ramoreboli, is also confident that the team will defy the odds in Egypt by qualifying for the Nations Cup for the second time. The Zebras first appeared at the tournament in 2012. “We have it in our hands. We have a proper plan for them (Egypt). The generation (of players) that the country has is good. They might not have names, but they have the right attitude. They go an extra mile in making sure that they get the results for the country. I believe and hope that we will come back with something,” Ramoreboli said on Friday after the Mauritania clash. He added: “The only thing that we need is to go into the match with 100% focus so that we could get the result we want. We must fight for the results.”
