Eswatini secure spot in next round of Afcon qualifiers
In spite of a late comeback by Somalia at Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday March 26, Eswatini managed to secure a spot in the next round of qualifiers for the 2025 African Cup of Nations.
Eswatini secured one of the four spots available in the African Cup of Nations qualification when they surpassed Somalia over two legs with an aggregate score of 5-2 to progress from the preliminary qualification round.
The preliminary round of 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification consisted of the eight lowest-ranked teams among the 52 Confederation of African Football (CAF) member nations, according to the Fifa world rankings.
These eight countries were Eswatini, Liberia, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe, Djibouti and Somalia.
SEE GALLERY: IN PHOTOS: Eswatini secure spot in next round of Afcon qualifiers
The preliminary round was held from March 20 to 26 and the eight teams were split into four ties which were played in a home-and-away format across two legs.
The winners of each tie would then advance to the next round of qualifiers where they join the other 44 member nations who received automatic spots in the qualification round proper.
Eswatini and Somalia, the highest and lowest ranked of the eight teams respectively, were drawn against one another and met for the first leg in El Jadida in Morocco on March 20. Eswatini reigned supreme, triumphing 3-0 to hold a significant advantage going into the second leg.
The second leg was played at Mbombela Stadium and matters got off to a rather slow start, with Somalia dominating the opening 25 minutes of the encounter. Once Eswatini settled into the game things levelled out though and they began to take charge, with the bulk of momentum in Eswatini’s favour heading into half time.
This carried over into the second half, and in the space of four minutes Eswatini capitalised on two great scoring chances and took a 2-0 lead, seemingly putting the tie out of Somalia’s reach courtesy of the 5-0 aggregate lead.
Somalia refused to go down easily though, and pulled a goal back in the 76th minute. They netted a second in the 84th minute and levelled the game at 2-2 with the tie at 5-2 on aggregate. That would be all that she wrote though and Eswatini managed to hold out for the 2-2 draw and 5-2 aggregate win.
This sees them progress to the next round of qualification along with Chad, South Sudan and Liberia as the other winners of the preliminary round.
