South Africa advanced to the final of the COSAFA Cup after a convincing 3-1 victory over Comoros at Free State Stadium on a cold night in Bloemfontein on Friday night.
The match began with an early advantage for South Africa when Mohamed Idris of Comoros scored an unfortunate own goal, putting his team on the back foot. Just minutes later, Boitumelo Radiopane doubled the lead for South Africa in the 14th minute with a goal that was initially reviewed by VAR but ultimately allowed to stand. Comoros responded in the 29th minute through Madi Ibrahim, who found the back of the net to reduce the deficit to 2-1 and kept his side in the contest. The goal injected some momentum into the Comoros side, but they were unable to capitalize further in the first half.
In the second half, South Africa regained control and sealed the win when Kamogelo Sebelebele scored, extending the lead to 3-1. Despite some resistance from Comoros, South Africa maintained their composure and saw out the remainder of the match comfortably. SA coach Vela Khumalo revealed that the team’s approach against Comoros was clear from the first whistle: get an early goal and set the tone. The plan was all about starting with energy and intent, applying pressure and making sure South Africa didn’t leave anything to chance.
“We said we are going to play with the two tenths, we are going to play with one top man and we wanted to end the goal so that we can settle them and open them because if you look at the teams that we have been playing against, they sit back and then they catch us on set-plays and start a situation,” he said. “So in this case, what we said was that let’s have a quick goal, let’s unsettle them, let’s play the ball behind them, but let’s draw them in because they were the main markers. So we said let’s have the two tenths to draw them in and then we go punch up with the striker. It has worked for us and I’m happy that we scored goals that we needed this time around.”
South Africa delivered a solid performance to book their spot in the COSAFA Cup final. With sharp attacking play and strong defensive organization, they proved too much for Comoros and will now look ahead to the final with confidence.
South Africa will face Angola in the final of the COSAFA Cup 2025 final, with the showdown scheduled for 15h00 at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.
SOURCED FROM SAFA WEBSITE.