Zimbabwe Young Warriors’ 2017 Cosafa Cup championships journey is over after failing to negotiate their way through the group stages. Zimbabwe needed to win their last game against Namibia to qualify for the next round of the competition but the game ended in a goalless stalemate and they finished the group games on five points the same number of points that Lesotho had but they went through to the semis because of the number of goals they scored.

Zimbabwe only managed one goal in the games while Lesotho scored two and conceded one in the group games and with the superior number of goals scored; Lesotho then sealed their place in the semifinals of the 2017 Mopani Copper Mines COSAFA Under-20 Championships as the top team from group C.

Zimbabwe will be desperately disappointed with another first-round exit after they were also ousted in the pool stages 12 months ago.

Tuesday’s results also confirmed that Egypt finished as the best runners-up for their six points in Group B and they will take on South Africa again in the other semifinal. The South Africans defeated Egypt on Monday to top group B.   

Both semifinals will be played at the Nkana Stadium, as will the third-place play-off and final on Saturday.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

Group C

Namibia 0 Zimbabwe 0

Lesotho 0 Angola 0

THURSDAY’S FIXTURES
Semifinals

13h00 (11h00 GMT): South Africa vs Egypt – Nkana Stadium

16h00 (14h00 GMT): Uganda vs Lesotho– Nkana Stadium
STANDINGS

Group A                      P          W        D          L          GF        GA       GD       Pts

Uganda                       3          1          2          0          5          3          +2        5
Malawi                        3          1          2          0          4          3          +1        5

Zambia                        3          1          1          1          2          2          0          4

Swaziland                   3          0          1          2          4          7          -3         1         

Group B                      P          W        D          L          GF        GA       GD       Pts

South Africa               3          3          0          0          5          1          +4        9

Egypt                          3          2          0          1          4          2          +2        6

Mozambique              3          1          0          2          2          2          0          3

Mauritius                    3          0          0          3          0          6          -6         0

Group C                      P          W        D          L          GF        GA       GD       Pts
Lesotho                      3          1          2          0          2          1          +1        5

Zimbabwe                  3          1          2          0          1          0          +1        5

Namibia                      3          1          1          1          2          2          0          4

Angola                                    3          0          1          2          0          2          -2         1

TOURNAMENT STATS

Matches Played:18
Goals scored:31
Biggest victory:Zambia 0 Uganda 2 (Group A, December 6); South Africa 2 Mauritius 0 (Group B, December 7); Egypt 2 Mauritius 0 (Group B, December 9); Zambia 2 Swaziland 0 (Group A, December 11); Mauritius 0 Mozambique 2 (Group B, December 11)
Most goals in a game:5 – Swaziland 2 Malawi 3 (Group A, December 6)

GOALSCORERS
3 goals -Muhammad Shaban(Uganda)

2 - Abdelrahman Amr (Egypt),Lyle Foster (South Africa), Order Mamba (Swaziland), Luvuyo Mkatshana (South Africa), Francisco Mwepu (Zambia), Patrick Phiri (Malawi), Raboama Koloti (Lesotho), Muzi Tsabedze (Swaziland)

1 - Hussein Abdelkader (Egypt), Peter Banda (Malawi), Kamo-Kamo Cumbane (Mozambique), Romario Hawiseb (Namibia), Domingos Junior (Mozambique), Mohamed Karem (Egypt), Francisco Madinga (Malawi), Stephen Mukwala (Uganda), Enzo Mungendje (Namibia), King Nasama (Zimbabwe), Nkosingiphile Ngcobo (South Africa), Allan Okello (Uganda)