Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto will again be Lesotho’s home away from home for their 2023 AFCON Group H qualifiers when they host Chipolopolo Zambia.
Lesotho is playing their home games away from their Maseru base because Setsoto Stadium does not meet CAF‘s specifications to host international matches.
The Lesotho Government announced in January that they still did not have the funds to rehabilitate and upgrade Setsoto Stadium.
This has now left Likuena with no option but to continue hosting their competitive international matches abroad for the foreseeable future.
The match will be the second leg of Lesotho and Zambia’s back-to-back date that will characterise most of March’s 2023 AFCON stage qualifying fixtures at the halfway point of the road to Cote d’Ivoire.
LESOTHO FA’S STATEMENT
“Lesotho will host the return match at Dobsonville Stadium in Johannesburg on March 26, as Setsoto Stadium remains suspended from hosting international matches. The game will kick off at 3.00 pm,” the Lesotho Football Association said in a statement.
The first leg will be played in the Northern Zambian city of Ndola at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium on March 23 in a 6.00 pm kickoff.
This will be Lesotho’s second 2023 AFCON Group H qualifying match that they will play at Dobsonville.
Likuena hosted Cote d’Ivoire at Dobsonville on match-day-two of their AFCON Group H qualifiers on June 9, 2022.
That match ended scoreless to hand Lesotho its first Group H points after kicking off their AFCON qualifying race with a 2-0 away loss to Comoros on June 3, 2022.
Lesotho is bottom of Group H on 1 point, Comoros and Zambia are tied on 3 points while Cote d’Ivoire lead on 4 points after two rounds of matches played.
Meanwhile, Lesotho’s home-based players are heading to Lilongwe to play Malawi in a friendly on February 25 as part of their preparations for the Zambia clash.
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