Bafana, Mozambique tune up for Afcon qualifiers

SA and Mozambique will begin tuning up for the resumption of Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in 2023 when they meet in an international friendly at the Mbombela Stadium on Thursday (8.30pm).

Both teams will be looking ahead to the next slate of Afcon qualifiers, with SA set to face Liberia in back-to-back matches in March in Group K, while Mozambique will have the daunting task of facing reigning continental champions Senegal twice in a row in Group L.

Bafana Bafana will be looking to build on their promising outings in the last international break in September, when they recorded 4-0 and 1-0 wins over Sierra Leone and Botswana, respectively.

The defeat of the Leone Stars

— in which Themba Zwane (two), Mihali Mayambela and Aubrey Modiba shared the goals — was particularly impressive, and perhaps the best performance yet under manager Hugo Broos.

However, the Belgian tactician has been left disappointed by a long injury list which means many players who featured in September will be unavailable for this camp.

“There is a disappointment because we can’t follow the plan,” Broos said.

“The plan was to play those two matches with the players who were there in September.

“I’m happy also because we have a camp in November.

“I said a few months ago that we needed this camp because there is an enormous gap between September and next year March when we have to play Liberia in the 2023 Afcon qualifiers.”

The Mambas, meanwhile, have been inactive since July when their ‘A’ team participated in the annual Cosafa Cup and finished fourth.

They defeated SA (on penalties) in the quarterfinals, before falling to Namibia in the semis and guest side Senegal (on penalties) in the third-place play-off.

In head-to-head stats, SA and Mozambique have met in nine matches (including clashes between ‘A’ teams in the Cosafa Cup) since 1995, with Bafana claiming six wins compared to two for the Mambas (including one via penalties), while one game was drawn.

The team’s last “full” international meeting was a friendly in November 2016 in Maputo which ended 1-1 after goals from Clesio and Bradley Grobler.