Amajimbos earn Cosafa semi berth

Late rally sees off Madagascar

The South African U17 team Amajimbos are through to the Cosafa U-17 Championships semifinals.

This followed a hard-fought 5-3 win yesterday over Madagascar in their last Group B match of the regional championships being hosted by Mauritius.

Amajimbos will face today’s winner between Malawi and Mauritius in the last four on Friday.

Yesterday, South Africa left it until late as they were 3-2 down at half-time at a wet and slippery Port Louis Stadium.

SA scored through Olifile Ramatlo, Junior Nare (brace), Alex da Silva and Mohammed Shahabodien .

“This was a great display of junior football. I believe both teams played very well and made typical mistakes for their age group,” said SA head coach Molefi Ntseki afterwards.

“I am very impressed with the way Madagascar played and I will not be too hard on my players; as we are in a building phase.”

“We forgot to defend after we went 2-0, and the players had to be reminded that the second half would be very crucial and that we should use of strengths to our advantage.”

SA had lost their second match on Sunday 3-2 to Zambia, after beating Mozambique 3-1 in their opening Group B match last week.