01 Mar 2018

Botswana Under 20 coach, Dragojlo Stanojlovic has welcomed the Africa Cup of Nations Niger 2019 Qualifiers draw which has pitted Botswana against Namibia.

The qualifies are slated for end of March and Young Zebras will host their counterpart in the first leg before travelling to Namibia for the second leg.

Stanojlovic said in an interview that they would prepare well for Namibia, adding that currently he was selecting his final squad. 

“I have not finished to select the team. I have 35 players who I have to trim to 25 . But I am happy with their work rate,” he said.

Furthermore, Stanojlovic said all the players he was assessing had talent and could conquer Africa in the qualifiers.

He said the only challenge with his squad was the fact that there was no junior league in the country, therefore most of them did not have game time.

Stanojlovic, however said their opponents should not undermine them because the young players were hungry for playing, saying the team  had a potential to cause upset to any team that might come their way.

He said expectations were that they must win against Namibia.  Stanojlovic said if things could go well, they would have two international friendlies against Zambia, South Africa or Lesotho before their main encounter. 

“I still want to engage the technical director and chief executive officer to see how we can go about the friendly games since they are very important for the young players before the main game,” he said.

Should Botswana win against Namibia home and away, they will face Congo in the second round of the tournament and the winner will face winner between Senegal and Egypt. BOPA