Comoros will be seeking a first ever victory at the COSAFA Under-20 regional championship when they take part in the TotalEnergies AFCON U20 Egypt 2023 | COSAFA Qualifier in Eswatini from October 7-16.
This year’s event is a preliminary competition for the continental finals in Egypt in early 2023 and Comoros will no doubt love to compete on that huge stage. To do so they will need to be among the finalists in Eswatini.
That may seem like a mighty challenge given the team has not yet won a match in the COSAFA event in six previous visits to the tournament, but they will remain hopeful they can spring a surprise.
They have been drawn in Group C this year alongside South Africa, Malawi and Namibia, a tough pool but one they will feel is not insurmountable.
Only the top teams and the best runner up across the three groups advance to the semifinals.
Comoros made their bow in 2007 when they exited in the first round, losing their only match 4-0 to Zimbabwe in what was a tough debut.
They were back the following year, but did not get past the group stages, and then withdrew in 2009, not appearing again until the 2013 event, where they managed a pair of draws against Lesotho (2-2) and Mauritius (0-0), but missed out on the knockout stages after losing 3-1 to Kenya.
The next finals were only held in 2016 but Comoros appeared again, drawing with Mozambique (2-2) before a loss to DR Congo (0-2) in a three-team pool.
They did not appear in the next two editions, but returned in 2019, losing all three games to Malawi (4-0), Zambia (2-0) and Botswana (2-1).
It was, unfortunately, a similar story in 2020 as all of their games ended in defeat as they went down to Malawi (1-0), Zambia (2-0) and Namibia (1-0), which still leaves them seeking that first win.
They have never before qualified for the TotalEnergies AFCON U20, so doing so this year would be a huge show of their potential.
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