15 Aug 2013

Botswana will this afternoon (Friday 16) kick-off its quest for a place at the FIFA 2014 U-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica with a clash against Zambia.

The girls take on their Zambia counterparts at Molepolole Sports Complex in the first round, first-leg of the qualifiers at 4pm.In the event Botswana win the two-legged tie, they would progress to the second round where they would face South Africa in another two-legged tie in November. 

The winner of the second round would then qualify for the fourth edition of the U-17 World Cup from March 15 to April 5 next year in Costa Rica. 

Botswana has never qualified for the tournament, and all previous attempts to reach the showpiece resulted in defeats. In qualifiers for the 2008 event the team was eliminated 9-1 on aggregate by Namibia in the first round. It was also dumped out in the preliminaries of the 2010 competition after a 7-2 aggregate by Democratic Republic of Congo. 

In the last edition Zimbabwe beat the local girls 3-1 on aggregate in the preliminaries.In other games Morocco meets South Sudan, Kenya takes on Congo, while Equatorial Guinea faces Kenya. Ends