Hosts and holders South Africa played to a 0-0 draw with Angola in their Group A clash at the 2021 COSAFA Women’s Championships, while Malawi edged Mozambique 3-2 at the Madibaz Stadium on Friday.

The results leave the pool wide open going into the final round of games on Monday, with all four sides theoretically still in with a chance of making the semifinals.

South Africa lead the pool with four points, ahead of Malawi (three), Angola (two) and Mozambique (one).

It means the home side remain in the driving seat ahead of their last clash with Mozambique, but any slip-ups would allow the others in the pool to overtake them. They were camped in the Angola half during the match, but were kept at bay by goalkeeper Sandrina Antonio, who was superb for the visiting team.

The best chance of the game fell to Melinda Kgadiete, but she was thwarted when one-on-one with Antonio.

Malawi kept themselves in the hunt with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Mozambique in a thrilling opening game on the day.

Mozambique, who twice let a lead slip against Angola in their opener, scored two goals in a minute early on to race into a 2-0 advantage.

Cina Manuel opened the scoring for the Mozambicans on 12 minutes, and within 60 seconds had another as Cidalia Cuta netted her second of the tournament.

But that was as good as it got for them, and Malawi’s comeback was sparked by a strike midway through the first half from Zainab Kapanda.

They were level just past the half-hour mark when Sabinah Thom netted with a good finish, and the comeback was complete when Ireen Khumalo grabbed the winner on 57 minutes.

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It is a fixture that pits together two sides who won in their opening games, with last season’s beaten finalists Botswana seeing off South Sudan 7-0 and Tanzania defeating Zimbabwe 3-0. This could well be the deciding game in the pool if one of these can grab a win.

Zimbabwe will look to keep their hopes alive when they take on South Sudan (15h30 CAT), with the latter gaining valuable experience at the COSAFA Women’s Championship having only played their first international in 2019.

South Sudan battled in the first half of their clash with Botswana but settled after the break and put in a much more composed performance.

With only the top team in each pool and the best placed runner-up among the three groups going through to the semifinals, the margin for error for all the sides is very small.

The teams are also building towards the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers that begin next month.

All matches will be streamed live on www.cosafa.tv and also available on SuperSport, with selected games to be shown on SABC.

Soka25east.com