09 Jul 2025

The Botswana senior women national football team, The Mares captain, Sedilame Bosija has promised that the team will play in the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final. 

Speaking during a press conference ahead of their Group B clash against Nigeria at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Morocco tomorrow, she said though they did not start well in their first game, they would play to prove their mettle.

She said they would their game against Nigeria to redeem their pride. 

“The game against Algeria, is now water under the bridge. We are now focused and we have learnt and identified our mistakes, so today, there will be no time for errors,” she said.

Coach Alex Malete said today’s game was an opportunity The Mares could not afford to miss. He said he was cognizant of the fact that they did not start the tournament well, as they lost 1-0 to Algeria.

“Against Nigeria, we have to play every moment, every second, from the first whistle, until the last whistle,” he said. 

In that regard, said as a team, they were very confident and positive that they would qualify for the quarterfinals.

“Everyone; players, managers and technical team, have a strong believe that we can pull through and make it to the next round,” he said.  

Most importantly, he said they believed in each other, in their system and structure. Furthermore, he said should they execute the game plan well against Nigeria, and play with heart, desire, commitment and passion, they would be in a good position to get good result. He said the mission was to be very competitive in remaining games, adding that they would also have to look at the other groups; how they played in terms of the scoreline and goal differences. 

“Every goal matters, so we have to keep the game against Nigeria very competitive and finish strongly in our game against Tunisia,” he said.

He said they did not play well in the first half, adding that when they had played against Nigeria in the WAFCON last edition and lost 2-0. 

“But this time I believe that they are a different team now, they have grown, and it is the same for us, we have grown as a team, and individually,” he said. ENDS