AFCON 2025: Ndzinisa stars as Eswatini thrash Somalia

Somalia’s hopes of qualifying for the 2025 African Cup of Nations suffered a huge blow after the Ocean Stars lost 3-0 to eSwatini in the first leg of their AFCON 2025 Qualification Preliminary Round encounter which was played on Wednesday 20 March at the Ben M’hamed El Abdi Stadium in El Jadida, Morocco.

The two nations were meeting for only the third time in their history after eSwatini also eliminated Somalia from the AFCON 2023 qualifiers at the preliminary round with a 5-1 aggregate win (3-0 away and 2-1 at home).

Somalia started the match well and managed to keep the Southern Africans at bay until the 40^th minute when forward Justice Figuareido, who plays Richards Bays in the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL), put eSwatini ahead with a low drive from outside the box.

Sabelo Ndzinisa of eSwatini Premier League side Green Mamba doubled the visitors’ lead in the fourth minute of added time at the end of the first half after heading in a cross from the right.

Ndzinisa completed his brace in the 56^th minute after beating Somalia’s goalkeeper Mustaf Yusuf with a low shot from outside the box.

ESWATINI 🇸🇿 3-0 SOMALIA 🇸🇴 😔 pic.twitter.com/6k8CqrKsTI

— SOMALI ATHLETE (@SomaliAthlete) March 20, 2024

The return leg will be in South Africa’s Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday 26 March. Like Somalia, eSwatini is hosting its home matches away from home because the country is yet to have a stadium that meets CAF’s standards.

The AFCON 2025 Qualification Preliminary Round fixtures involve the eight lowest ranked countries in the continent and the four winners from that stage of the qualifying will join the other 44 nations and be pooled into 12 groups of four teams from which the winners and the runners-up will qualify for the 2025 African Cup of Nations.

Somalia’s neighbours Djibouti are also part of the eight teams competing in the preliminary round. Djibouti also got their campaign off to an undesirable start as they lost their first leg encounter 2-0 to Liberia in a match played in Marrakech, Morocco, on Wednesday too . The second leg will played in Liberia on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.

The other matches in that stage of the AFCON 2025 qualifying rounds are Sao Tome & Principe vs South Sudan and Chad vs Mauritius.

The preliminary round first leg result means Eswatini are virtually certain to secure a place in the group stage after the return match in the South African city of Mbombela on Tuesday.

Somalia hosted Eswatini in the Moroccan port city of El Jadida.

Somalia chose to play in north-west Africa rather than a geographically closer country because all their expenses were paid by Morocco.

You played really well in November especially against Algeria but playing every game away is not helping the team to develop. From watching today match I felt it was more of a friendly than a competitive game with that empty stadium that gave no energy to fight for the players

— International Football ⚽ (@WorldIFootball) March 20, 2024

They now face an 11,500-kilometre journey to Mbombela, where Eswatini stage home fixtures as they do not have an international-standard stadium.

Djibouti play Liberia later Wednesday, Sao Tome e Principe face South Sudan and Chad meet Mauritius on Friday in the other first legs.

The preliminary round involves the eight lowest-ranked teams and the overall victors join 44 other nations in a draw that will create 12 groups with winners and runners-up qualifying for the tournament.

Additional reporting by AFP