Botswana counts blessings despite WAFCON Q/final exit

Despite Botswana’s elimination from the ongoing TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, head coach Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang has praised her team’s resilience that has brought them this far in the tournament.

The Mares, who are playing at their first WAFCON, reached the last eight but lost 2-1 to the hosts Morocco who were a much better side in 90 minutes.

Nkutlwisang confessed that, “This was a game of two halves. We went into the halftime break with the game tied at 1-1 but Morocco came into the second half overloading both our flanks and we tried to manage that but they kept coming at us and with time and space, they scored

“Regardless, I am pleased with my team. They put up a great performance throughout the tournament growing from strength to strength. We have mostly players that are under the age of 25 and about six that are over 30 so that is a side for the future. We shall look to build on this and return stronger in the next edition,” she explained further

Botswana might be out of title contention but they still have a chance to feature at next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The Mares will meet the loser of the game between Nigeria and Cameroon.

The winner of this game will play the inter-confederation playoff with the winner taking the longer route to the world showpiece.

Gaoletlhoo Nkutlwisang, head coach of Botswana during the 2022 Womens Africa Cup of Nations press conference for Botswana at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, Morocco on 9 July 2022

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“Our focus now is to psyche the players and see how to correct our mistakes going forward. In the four matches that we have played, we have conceded all goals through set pieces except for two so we need to look into that,” said the concerned Nkutlwisang.

Despite that, the Botswana tactician who is one of three female coaches at the WAFCON 2022 kept a smile throughout the press conference and promised that her side will come back stronger in their last game in Morocco.