AMAJITA TURN FOCUS TO SHOWDOWN WITH EGYPT

A GOAL seconds before half-time from Luvuyo Mkatshana gave South Africa a narrow 1-0 victory over Mozambique in their 2017 Mopani Copper Mines Cosafa Under-20 Championships Group B clash at the Nkana Stadium in Kitwe on Saturday.

The victory, coupled with a 2-0 success for Egypt over Mauritius earlier in the day, sets up a winner-takes-all showdown between Amajita and the Young Pharaohs today.

Both teams have six points from their two pool matches so far, and each have scored three goals and conceded none. Mozambique and Mauritius have both been eliminated.

In a match of few clear-cut chances, South Africa’s Lyle Foster headed over in the first period, before the five-time winners managed to hit the front with Mkatshana’s excellent strike. Foster was then denied by Mozambique goalkeeper Victor Gumbe in what would prove the final chance of the game.

Egypt, in turn, secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Mauritius thanks to a brace of goals from striker Abdelrahman Amr.

The North African guest nation were always in control of the encounter and have now not only secured two wins, but also two clean-sheets as they showed great organisation and tactical excellence.

After Amr put them ahead with a neat finish on 17 minutes, before Mauritian substitute goalkeeper Jean Georges made a fine stop to deny Roshdi Ashraf, and then denied Amr from close-range.

Mauritius had a better opening the second half as Aurelien Perle saw his header blocked and Jean Sarah flashed a shot inches wide.

The latter was then involved in the second goal for Egypt though as his defensive slip allowed Amr to take possession and secure his brace.

Things went from bad to worse for Sarah in injury-time when he collected a second yellow card and was sent off.

The action continued yesterday with two matches in Group C.

Namibia, who beat Angola on Friday, were beaten 2-1 by Lesotho, who had held Zimbabwe in their first game and proved in this game that they are no pushovers.

In yesterday’s second game, Zimbabwe gave their semi-final hopes a boost with a late strike by King Nasama to secure a 1-0 win over Angola. –

................................................................ 2 (Amr 17’, 88’) ......................................................... 0

................................................. 0 ................................................... 1 (Mkatshana 45’)

.......................................................... 1 (Hawiseb 64’) ............................................................ 2 (Roboama 70’, 76’)

...................................................... 1 (Nasama 90’+ 2’) ............................................................. 0