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Football: Under-20 Afcon qualifiers - Seychelles and Mozambique draw in first leg |03 April 2018

Seychelles and Mozambique shared a goalless draw at Stad Linite on Saturday afternoon in the first leg of the preliminary round of the qualifying matches for the 21st African Cup of Nations for the Under-20 where the finals will take place in Niger in 2019.

The Mozambicans started strongly as they pressed for an early goal and went close in the 28th minute when their captain Kamo-Kamo Cumbane eluded his marker to send an inch perfect cross to Gracio Pestana but he failed to tuck home from close range.

The Seychelles team rarely threatened their opponents that had had a good preparation with three friendly matches against Tanzania, Morocco and Swaziland before this game here and they also had their senior coach, namely Abel Xavier, the former Liverpool and Portugal defender, urging the team from the sidelines as the first half ended scoreless.

The Young Mambas continued to probe in the second half and in the 63rd minute, captain Cumbane lofted a corner kick to Jeremias Salda Nhambire whose goal-bound shot was deflected over the crossbar.

Cumbane also nearly broke the deadlock with a fierce shot across the face of the Seychelles goal in the 70th minute as they kept finding it hard to weather down a solid Seychelles defence built around captain Juninho Mathiot.

The Seychelles team then had two great chances to open the scoring. The first came in the 83rd minute when Brandon Labrosse stole defender Rui Antonio Gimo’s back pass to goalkeeper Julio Americo Matavele who was coming out of his goal and the Foresters midfielder’s lob sailed agonisingly wide of the Mozambican goal.

In the 87th minute, right back Raphael Jacqueline came marauding forward and his telling cross forced goalkeeper Matavele to rush out of his goal to clear the danger with his feet as the two teams shared a goalless draw with the second leg scheduled to take place in Mozambique on April 21 and Seychelles coach Cliff Nolin was generally pleased with his team’s showing.

“It was a very determined performance by our team who had a very short time to prepare and this is not nice as the federation always leave everything for the last minute to start preparing our team but I accepted this challenge as I want to help these youngsters and I am very happy with their commitment against an opponent who was well-prepared so we had to focus on a solid defence and then try to hit them on the counter,” explained the Seychelles under-20 coach Cliff Nolin.

As for the Young Mambas’ coach Victor Matine, he was pleased with the result though he felt his team should have done better in their finishing especially as they enjoyed plenty of possession in this match.

“We controlled the match for long periods and created numerous scoring opportunities but unfortunately we were not sharp enough in front of goal but nevertheless we are happy with the result against an opponent who played very defensively but we hope to do better at home,” coach Matine told Sports NATION.

 

R. J-L.

 

 

 

 

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