OVER 10 EUROPE-BASED STARS TO FACE SIHLANGU
Dominic Kunene’s troops will be away in Cape Verde on March 24 for AFCON Qualifier
MBABANE – It seems Sihlangu will have to swim with the sharks when they resume their AFCON qualifying campaign in 15 days’ time.
On March 24, Dominic Kunene’s troops will be away in Cape Verde for match day three of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifiers. This will be Eswatini’s first official and competitive fixture in 2023. It would prove to be a tough test for Sihlangu as the opponents have a majority of their players plying their trade in big leagues in Europe.
No less than 10 players are based in Europe and they are headlined by Jovane Cabral, who plays for Portuguese top division side Sporting CP. Among the notable stars is Garry Rodrigues who is attached to Olympiacos in Greece. In Greece’s top division, the latter are currently third.
Other players are in top and second-tier leagues in Sweden, Russia, France, Netherlands, Spain and Belgium. Notably, a majority of Cape Verde players were born in Europe.
While Cape Verde is yet to announce the final squad to face Sihlangu, the overseas-based stars are expected to form a core of the team after featuring prominently in recent games for that country. In the AFCON Qualifiers, Cape Verde were last in action against Togo and won 2-0 back on June 7 last year. Against Togo, Sihlangu were held to a 2-all draw.
In Eswatini’s current squad, on the other hand, there is no player playing outside the country’s borders. However, Coach Kunene has never ruled out a chance of tweaking the squad before the trip to Cape Verde.
Eswatini players in professional leagues include right-back Lindo Mkhonta, who is at Zesco United in Zambia and winger Justice Figuareido. The latter was loaned to All Stars, a South Africa’s second-tier football side. His parent club is DStv Premiership side TS Galaxy.
Camp
Efforts to get comments from Kunene on the squad were fruitless at the time of compiling this report. This publication also wanted to establish if the final Eswatini squad would be announced before the start of fulltime camp next Monday.
In the current team, there is no place for renowned stars who include MTN Premier League leading top goalscorer Felix Badenhorst (16 goals) and on-form Green Mamba midfielder Mxolisi Mkhontfo.
In the qualifiers, Sihlangu did not have a dream start after a draw and defeat against Togo and Burkina Faso, in that order. They need to finish second on the charts after round six to earn a ticket to the AFCON finals to be staged in Ivory Coast between January and February, next year.