Tiny island nation to face Bafana in Afcon qualifiers

One of Africa’s smallest countries qualified against the odds at the weekend to meet Bafana Bafana in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Sao Tome e Principe‚ the former Portuguese colony off the west coast of the continent‚ beat Mauritius 2-1 on Sunday to complete home-and-away victories and a 5-2 aggregate success in the preliminary round of the Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Their reward is a place in group C with SA‚ Ghana and Sudan — which kicks off in November.

SA will not take on the small island nation‚ whose footballing success has been stark‚ until August 2020 when they play home-and-away fixtures against each other in a nine-day period.

It will be the first time Bafana meet Sao Tome‚ who were paired with SA in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers but pulled out because of financial constraints.

Sao Tome‚ with a population of 200,000 people‚ lost in September over two legs against Guinea Bissau in the World Cup preliminaries and are already out of contention for Qatar 2022. But they get a rare chance to compete in the group phase of qualifying in what will be a chance to begin to build a competitive team.

Most of their players are home based but they have several Portuguese-born players in their squad.

Sao Tome’s goal hero against Mauritius was Luis Leal‚ who is Portugal born to Sao Tomense parents but plays at Lionel Messi’s and Mauricio Pochettino’s old club Newell’s Old Boy’s in Argentina.

Sao Tome have had rare success with home wins in the last two decades over Sierra Leone‚ Lesotho‚ Ethiopia and Libya. Their last victory before October was three years ago. The 3-1 first-leg triumph over Mauritius last Wednesday was their first away victory.

Bafana will have to play on artificial turf when they head to the small island nation. The Estádio Nacional 12 de Julho is their only recognised venue.

Bafana begin their qualifying campaign with an away game in Ghana on November 15 and then home against the Sudan four days later.