SA coach Morena Ramoreboli started his Botswana national team, Zebras, tenure with a 1-1 draw against Mauritania in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers on Friday afternoon at Obed Itani Chilume Stadium, in Francistown.
Ramoreboli, the Jwaneng Galaxy mentor, landed a national team job as an interim coach in October. He took over from Didier Gomes Da Rosa after he resigned from his role.
Aboubakary Koita opened the scoring for the visitors in the seventh minute, then Gilbert Baruti levelled matters for the hosts 17 minutes into the match.
MORENA RAMOREBOLI’S BOTSWANA HELD TO A DRAW BY MAURITANIA
The stalemate saw Botswana remain second on Group C standings with seven points from five outings, then Mauritania has four points.
Heading into the encounter, Botswana only needed maximum points to seal their AFCON qualification. After four qualifier matches played, they had registered six points from two victories and two defeats.
The Zebras now face an insurmountable task in their qualification campaign. Depending on how, Cape Verde fare against Egypt, they may need one point to seal qualification to the 2025 AFCON edition to be hosted by Morocco. If they are successful, this will be Botswana’s second appearance in their history.
In their last qualifier on Tuesday, 19 November, the Southern African side will face log leaders and seven-time African champions; Egypt who have already qualified for the AFCON finals. Kickoff at 30 June Stadium is at 5PM.
Botswana first booked their ticket to the competition 12 years ago in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. However, they had a disastrous campaign being one of the worst sides due to their poor performances.
The team was eliminated out of the competition in the group stages without a single point. This was after three consecutive defeats. In that tournament, Botswana lost 2-1 against Mali, 6-1 against Guinea and 1-0 against Ghana.
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