Preview: Botswana vs. Mauritania: lineups, team news, and prediction
Francistown Stadium will host Botswana’s penultimate 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Mauritania on Friday.
The visitors need to win to be in the running for a spot in the tournament, while the Zebras will enter this match knowing that a win might help them earn their second trip to the AFCON.
At the Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde, Botswana won 2-0 to complete the double over Cape Verde last month. A few days later, they won the rematch 1-0 at home.
Despite losing to Egypt and Mauritania in their opening two games of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers, those victories put Didier Gomes Da Rosa’s team in second place and put them in a strong position to earn the second AFCON ticket in Group C.
After losing every game in their lone prior appearance in 2012, Botswana, who moved up seven spots to 140th in the most recent FIFA World Rankings, will now try to perhaps earn a second trip to Africa’s premier international tournament.
To secure the ticket before to the last group.The Zebras need to defeat Mauritania on Friday in their road encounter against Egypt in order to keep group leaders Egypt, who have already guaranteed their place at the 2025 AFCON, from losing to Cape Verde.
Though their solitary victory occurred in one of their two home games, Botswana has lost four of their last five games against Friday’s opponents, including the last three. The most recent of these losses was a 1-0 setback in the rematch back in September.
With the victory over Botswana in September, Mauritania’s qualification campaign got off to a good start. However, they have subsequently lost their next three games.
Despite being level with Cape Verde on three points, the Lions of Chinguetti finished last in the group because of their poor goal differential, which came after a 2-0 loss to Cape Verde and consecutive 2-0 and 1-0 losses to Egypt in the double header last month.
Mauritania has advanced to the AFCON for the past three years, but manager Amir Abdou needs to muster his team to defeat Botswana on the road in order to maintain their hopes of attending the competition in Morocco the following year.
But in their last 16 games, the Lions of Chinguetti have lost 11, drawn three, and won just two, scoring in just four of those games. Their most recent victory away from home was against Central in June 2023.
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