24 Feb 2026

 The senior women’s national football team, The Mares have bowed out of the Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women's Championship following a 1-0 defeat to Zimbabwe women’s national football team, The Mighty Warriors.

The Mares were drawn in Group B alongside defending champions Zambia, Zimbabwe and eSwatini in a tournament held in South Africa.

In their group matches, Botswana lost 3-0 to Zambia, drew 1-1 with eSwatini and suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Zimbabwe in their final group clash yesterday.

The decisive goal came in the 69^th minute through Rutendo Makore.

Despite the loss, The Mares showed notable improvement compared to their earlier matches, displaying maturity, teamwork and a more solid midfield performance. They created several scoring opportunities but failed to convert them.

The team travelled to the tournament with a squad assembled at the eleventh hour following the withdrawal of some senior players from the squad.

Nevertheless, the youthful squad demonstrated promise and showed they could form the foundation of the team’s future.

The Mares have always struggled in the COSAFA Women’s Championship. Their best performance was in 2020, when they finished as runners-up after losing by a solitary goal to South Africa’s Banyana Banyana in the final.

During the 2020 campaign, the Mares made history by defeating Zambia 2-1 in a thrilling semi-final before falling to South Africa in the final, narrowly missing the chance to lift the regional title for the first time.

From 2021 to 2025, however, they were eliminated in the group stages, a trend some football analysts attributed to the country’s limited structural development of women’s football. ENDS