Maseru
Aspirations for Lesotho’s senior national football team to qualify for the first ever TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations ( AFCON) will begin on September this year following the fixtures which were announced on Monday this week by the Confederation of African Football ( CAF).
The fixtures came days after a draw which was conducted in Johannesburg, South Africa last Thursday , where Likuena as the team as a affectionately known came out in Group B alongside tricky sides being: hosts Morocco , Central African Republic (CAR) and Gabon.
The fixtures revealed that , Likuena will begin their 2025 AFCON qualifier campaign with back-to –back matches against CAR and Morocco. They will first be away to CAR followed by a home game against Morocco with both clashes scheduled to play between September 2 to September 10 this year.
The busy qualifying campaign will continue again from October 7 to October 15 , 2024 where Likuena is slated to face Gabon in back –to-back matches starting with the away encounter.
The Group B fixtures will conclude in November with home and away games against CAR Morocco respectively.
Lesotho will have a mammoth task to do in order to qualify out of the group as only one spot from Group C remains vacant. This is because Morocco by virtue of being hosts of the 2025 continental showpiece are already guaranteed a place in the tournament while, Lesotho , CAR and Gabon will have to battle it out for the remaining qualifying spot.
While reflecting on the draw last week, head coach of Lesotho, Leslie Nots’I was unfazed by the outcome. He expressed confidence that his team, Likuena , will pose a strong challenge to its opponents .He spoke of the challenges and opportunities presented by being in the same group as the host nation.
” The draw is very interesting because when you have the host in your group, it means they qualify automatically, and you have to double your efforts to secure the remaining qualification spot,” he said
