Somalia coach Ali Nur has attributed his team’s 2-0 loss to Botswana on Tuesday to defensive mistakes. He, however, remains optimistic of learning from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Nur said this in a post-match interview after the Group G match at Francistown Stadium on Tuesday, attributing the defeat to defensive frailties.
"As one of the teams participating in the group stages of the FIFA World Cup qualification, we wanted to play a good game against Botswana. We lost; this is football anything can happen,” he said.
Nur observed that his side has been trying to compete strongly in the group stages, their best result this far being a one-all draw with Guinea last week.
“In the the first game, we drew against Guinea but [today] the main problem is our mistakes in defence,” he said.
Earlier, Botswana coach Morena Ramoreboli praised the Zebras for their win over Somalia on Tuesday, as the beginning of good things towards building a strong team.
The Zebras won the game after Gape Mohutsiwa and Mothusi Johnson scored in the 74th and 84th minutes respectively to move into third place, six points behind group leaders Algeria who thumped Mozambique 5-1 on the same night. Somalia remain winless and occupy last place in the pool.
Group G Table (6 matches played)
Points | |
Algeria | 15 |
Mozambique | 12 |
Botswana | 9 |
Uganda | 9 |
Guinea | 7 |
Somalia | 1 |
The group winner qualifies for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Four of the nine group runners-up qualify for a playoff to determine Africa's representative at the intercontinental qualifying playoff.
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