International games take centre stage
Qualifiers for EURO 2024 in Germany and the next World Club take centre stage over the next week and will provide the bulk of the matches in TAB soccer pools. There’s a chance to win mountains of cash this Thursday night when a R5-million TAB Soccer 13 carryover is set to produce a mega pool of over R8 million! It’s a great chance to land a life-changing payout for as little as R2!
Africa might have more places than before at the expanded FIFA World Cup finals in 2026, but it will still be a tough fight to secure one of the nine berths allotted to the continent at the next edition of the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
With nine qualifying groups, only the winner advances to the finals although there is a chance for the best runners-up to participate in a second qualifying tournament and grab a berth.
With Nigeria in the same group as Bafana Bafana, there’s an arduous task ahead for the South African national team.
To stand any chance of getting to the finals, they will have to win as many games as possible against the other sides in their group, starting with Benin in Durban on Saturday and then Rwanda away next Tuesday.
The failure to beat tiny Eswatini at home in a friendly last month hardly provided much hope for South African soccer fans, but it is a long campaign and much can change for the positive along the way.
The opening two rounds of the African qualifiers are being played over the next seven days with many of them one-sided games, but there are several competitive clashes too. It will be intriguing to see how Zimbabwe, who have recently emerged from a two-year FIFA ban, fare against Nigeria on Sunday.
They have ceded home advantage because none of their stadia is up to international standards and will play the match in Rwanda.
Zimbabwe have always had many talented players to call on, but have been let down by poor administrators which, to be fair, has also been the case with Nigeria.
The 2024 European Championship qualifiers are drawing to a conclusion and several groups are fascinatingly poised, notably Group C with Ukraine and Italy set to face off next Monday to decide who takes the second qualification spot behind England.
Wales know that two more wins against Armenia and already-qualified Turkey - will secure qualification for their third Euro finals in a row after recovering from a slow start to their group D campaign.
Kazakhstan remain hopeful of qualifying for a first major tournament thanks to their comeback win against Finland last month. They take on bottom-placed San Marino on Friday before group-leaders Denmark and Slovenia square up. Victory will ensure that Kazakhstan go into their last qualifier against Slovenia with their chances of booking a place at the finals still very much alive.
And over the next days all of Albania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Serbia and Switzerland should confirm their places at the finals in Germany in June next year.
HIRED/FIRED: Zimbabwe have a new coach in 71-year-old Brazilian Baltemar Brito, who worked as Jose Mourinho’s assistant at FC Porto and Chelsea.