Ethiopia and Uganda have booked their spots in the fourth round of the African qualifiers for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, Cost Rica 2022 after earning favourable results in third round, second leg ties on Friday.
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia consolidated on their huge 3-1 first leg victory in Francistown and secured a 5-1 thrashing of Botswana at Abebe Bikila Stadium on the day.
The travelling COSAFA side compounded their own woes as they gifted the home team the lead when Keimetse Thomas scored an own goal, turning the ball into her own net in the 27th minute of the encounter.
Three minutes later, Ariet Odong Ojho doubled the advantage for the hosts before Ridiet Assresahagn hit a brace in the 33rd and 37th minutes for the Ethiopians’ third and fourth goal in the first half.
After the restart, the rampant hosts sustained the pressure on their rattled visits till Lirato Motligelwa scored another own goal to gift them the fifth in the 57th minute. Tshegofatso Nomsa Mosotho, however, struck four minutes from full time but her brilliant late effort turned out a mere consolidation for Botswana.
Speaking to CafOnline.com after their huge 8-2 aggregate triumph, Ethiopia U20 coach Firew Hailegebra said: “We played so well and deserved to win. We now get back to the drawing board to prepare for the next stage.”
With their progression at the expense of Botswana, Ethiopia will slug it out with the victor between Tanzania and Burundi in the next phase.
In Johannesburg on the same day, the Cranes of Uganda held Basetsana of South Africa to a 0-0 draw and progressed on a 1-0 aggregate score.
Hadijah Nandago’s strike gave the East Africans a 1-0 first leg lead in Entebbe two weeks ago and sought to avoid a defeat to the South Africans, who needed a good form to overturn the deficit in spite of being without some key players.
The Cranes, however rebuffed all attempts by Jabulile Baloyi’s team to cancel their first leg lead at Dobsonville Stadium as the visitors kept the score goalless till full-time in Soweto to reach the fourth round of the qualifying series.
The result means South Africa have failed to reach the final round of the African qualifiers for the first time in four attempts and miss yet another chance to realise their maiden FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup dreams in Costa Rica.
Having advanced beyond South Africa, Uganda will square up with the winner between Zambia and Ghana in the next phase of the qualification tournament.
Source: CAF