MASERU – The Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) has announced two friendly matches for the national team Likuena this weekend.
Likuena will play Eswatini away from home as part of the preparations for their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Comoros on June 17. The game will be played in South Africa at the Dobsonville Stadium in Johannesburg, the ground Likuena have used throughout the qualifying stage.
Likuena are already out of the running to qualify for the 2023 AFCON after their back-to-back defeats against Zambia in March but they still have to play Comoros as well as Ivory Coast to complete the qualifying process.
LEFA said it is expecting a strong finish from the two remaining games as well as a good performance at the upcoming Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup to be staged in Durban, South Africa, in July.
Lesotho will also take on Togo in a friendly game in Johannesburg. The date for the game has not been announced but it will be played a few days before both countries play their AFCON qualifiers against Comoros and Eswatini respectively.
Likuena’s preparations have already started with locally-based players and the side’s international players expected to join at a later stage. The COSAFA Cup draw was held last Friday and Likuena have been drawn in Group C with Angola, Mozambique and Mauritius. While it is not an easy group, Lesotho is expected to make it out and proceed to the semi-finals.
There will likely be no international players in their competitors’ squads which should give Likuena a chance. Failure to proceed to the next round of the COSAFA Cup could put the future of head coach Veselin Jelusic under serious threat. As it is, the coach is facing scrutiny over the way his team plays and his selection.
Jelusic has called up several new faces to the team and he will be looking to give them much needed experience in international football.
Tlalane Phahla