Botswana have reduced AFCON losses: Mohutsiwa

Botswana national team midfielder Gape Mohutsiwa has painted a picture of his team’s progress at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals, despite the obvious struggles.

Morena Ramoreboli’s men have found the going tough in Group D matches at the finals underway in Morocco, losing 3-0 and 1-0 to Senegal and Benin, respectively.

Going into the academic match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday, Algeria-based Mohutsiwa has sought to put context to their losses.

“It has been quite tough two matches,” he said. “There is no exception; this is CAF AFCON. The level is very high, and anybody is expected to be very high. When we qualified, we knew what we were putting ourselves into.”

Gape Mohutsiwa Puts Context on Botswana’s AFCON sStruggles

The Algeria’s MC Oran FC midfielder highlighted that Botswana are only making their second appearance at the AFCON finals.

“If you remember very well, this is our second AFCON [appearance in the finals], so we are not perennial AFCON participants. But, by far, we have managed to take down the deficits even though we have lost,” the 28-year-old added.

“Even though we would have wanted to be in a better position than now, and even though you don’t want to measure progress using the negatives, it is part of the beautiful game. We have just reduced the deficit from the first game against Senegal [to the second one versus Benin].

“We played against good players, and it is always a privilege. We are looking forward to taking the next step tomorrow [Tuesday]. Anything can happen. This is football.”

The back-to-back defeats have inevitably seen Botswana crash out of the race for a place in the round-of-16. Botswana made their AFCON debut at the 2012 edition, which Gabon and Equatorial Guinea co-hosted.