Saudi Arabia, Angola, South Africa and Mozambique all pulled off big wins on the second day of the Cosafa Beach Soccer Championship at Durban’s South Beach Arena on Monday, in some cases upsetting the odds.
Angola caused a major surprise as they defeated Morocco, who are the top-ranked team in the competition and had been such impressive winners over Mozambique on day one.
Angola claimed a 3-2 victory to lead Group B with five points from their two games and stay on course for the semifinals.
Joao Tchitungo scored a brace of goals and Wilson Francisci got the other in what will be a famous win for the Cosafa side. Driss Ghannam and Ayoub Zahraoui, who both scored a brace on day one, found the back of the net again.
Mozambique edged a nine-goal thriller in the other game in the pool as they defeated Tanzania 5-4, the latter suffering back-to-back defeats having been losing finalists in 2021.
On that occasion it was Mozambique who beat them 3-1 in the final, so they had a double dose of pain from the Mambas.
Rachide Simithe, Antonio Namape Jnr, Angelo Tomas and a brace from Yuran Malate made up the five goals for Mozambique.
Jaruph Juma, who has now taken his career tally of Cosafa Beach Soccer Championships goals to 10 after also scoring in 2021 and 2022, netted a brace in the game, as did Abdulrahim Bausi.
In Group A, hosts South Africa got their campaign back on track with a 3-2 victory over Seychelles, having had to come from behind to do so.
Stephen Lajoie and Medrick Baptiste were on target for 2025 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup hosts Seychelles, but South Africa rallied via a contender for Goal of the Tournament from Ntuthuko Mbutho, and strikes via Siyabonga Mkhize and Abongile Gcuda.
Saudi Arabia, the first non-African team to compete at a Cosafa event, finished off the day with a thumping 5-1 win over Malawi, the biggest victory of the tournament to date.
That game also supplied us with the first hattrick of the competition, scored by Ramzi Dakman, who moves to the top of the scorers charts with four goals overall. Mubarak Alduoasri and Ali Alhamami were also on target for the Saudis, whose win means all three teams in Group A have three points with one round left to play. Eddie Jamu got the lone goal for Malawi.
After a rest day on Tuesday, the teams will do it all again on Wednesday with the third and final round of games in the two pools, and you can check all the fixtures here.
And the best news for those that want to take in the action live is that tickets are free. These can be collected on a first come, first served basis from the entrance to the South Beach Arena.
If you cannot be on the beach, there are many other ways to follow the action. Matches will be broadcast live on FIFA+ and we will be providing result updates and tournament content across all of our social media platforms. – cosafa.com
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