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REFILOE Tholakele scored a hat-trick as last year’s beaten finalists Botswana opened their 2021 Cosafa Women’s Championships Group B campaign with a 7-0 victory over guest nation South Sudan at a wet Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium yesterday.

Tanzania claimed a 3-0 victory over Zimbabwe in the other match in the pool on what was an enthralling second day of action at the regional showpiece competition.

South Sudan only started playing women’s international football in 2019 and due to the Covid-19 pandemic have had just a handful of chances to take to the field since then.

The Cosafa Women’s Championships are therefore supplying them with invaluable international exposure at a high level and they will be pleased with how they coped in the second period against a very talented Mares side.

Botswana were 6-0 up at the break, as Tholakele got the ball rolling with a superb free-kick, and had completed her hat-trick inside 40 minutes with another excellent shot from the edge of the box and then a poacher’s strike as the ball came back off the crossbar.

Lesego Radiakanyo, Mokgabo Thanda, Balothanyi Johannes and Masego Montsho added further goals for the side, who are being led by coach Thabo Motang at the tournament.

Tanzania were good value for their win over Zimbabwe, though the game was an evenly-matched contest and could have gone either way.

Two excellent moments of skill settled the contest as Donisia Minja opened the scoring for the East African side three minutes before half-time, and Mwanahamisi Shurua added a second just after the break.

Both sides had chances after that, but Tanzania got the next goal as hugely promising youngster Aisha Masaka, who starred at the 2020 Cosafa Women’s Under-17 Championship scored a late third.

With only the top team in each pool and the best placed runner-up going through to the semi-finals, 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. — Cosafa