Likuena remain hopeful for AFCON

Seabata Mahao

Likuena Head Coach Vaselin Julisic said Likuena still has a chance to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) despite failing to win its first two qualifier matches.

The national team is currently rooted at the bottom of Group H following a 2-0 loss to Comoros and 0-0 with Côte d’Ivoire, last year.

Addressing journalists this week, Julisic said Likeuna has a good chance of qualifying if they can win their third match of the group against Zambia.

Likuena will face Zambia in back-to-back matches, with the first match to be played away at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Zambia, on March 23.

The return match will be played at Dobsonville Stadium in the neighbouring South Africa on March 26.

Lesotho’s national stadium, Setsoto, remains suspended from hosting international matches as it needs to be refurbished.

Julisic said their tomorrow’s friendly match against Malawi will help the team prepare for Zambia. The match is scheduled to be played in Lilongwe, Malawi.

“We believe that Malawi can give us the challenge we need for our match. We have limited time as well as resources so we could not have more international friendly matches but this one will do for sure,” he said.

“We have added new players so that they can get to taste and experience the international match so it will not be heavy on them when we play against Zambia on weekend.”

On his part, Likuena captain, Basia Makepe, said his team is ready for Malawi and believes they have a good chance to win the match.

“During the camp, we as domestic senior players and junior players got to interact and we shared ideas and we have a good strategic plan against Malawi,” he said.

“We believe we will defeat Malawi but the match is more about preparing ourselves for the AFCON qualifiers so we will also be learning from Malawi,” Makepe stated.