Cheetahs secure vital 1–0 victory over Zebras

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• Uganda take on Tanzania in an exciting encounter
• Tunisia lock horns with Nigeria in the final match of the day

Benin 1-0 Botswana

Goalscorer: Yohan Roche (28’)

Yohan Roche’s first-half strike proved decisive as Benin reignited their TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Morocco 2025 Round of 16 qualification hopes with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Botswana in Rabat, reports CAFonline.

This was Benin’s first ever victory at the AFCON. The result not only penned a brilliant chapter in their history, but also saw Gernot Rohr’s men respond positively after their opening-day defeat to DR Congo.

Meanwhile, Botswana’s ambitions of a first-ever progression to the knockout stage suffered a major setback following a second consecutive loss.

Benin made a purposeful start and were briefly celebrating inside the opening quarter of an hour before Aiyegun Tosin’s effort was ruled out for offside. Their persistence was eventually rewarded in the 28th minute when Roche found the breakthrough.

The left-back finished off a pass from captain Steve Mounié, his effort taking a decisive deflection off a defender before beating goalkeeper Goitseone Phoko.

Botswana came close to restoring parity seven minutes before the interval, but Mothusi Johnson’s superb free-kick crashed against the crossbar.

After the restart, Benin looked to put the contest beyond doubt. Tamimou Ouorou went close on two occasions, first forcing Phoko into a full-stretch save from distance before seeing another deflected effort well gathered by the Botswana goalkeeper.

Botswana pushed forward in the closing stages in search of a lifeline, but lacked the cutting edge required to trouble the Beninese defence.

The Zebras will conclude their Group D campaign against DR Congo in Rabat on Tuesday, while Benin face former champions Senegal in Tangier on the same day, knowing that a positive result could secure their place in the knockout phase.

REACTIONS:

Gernot Rohr, Benin coach:

“This victory is important to us because it gives us a chance to qualify for the next round. We proved today that we have progressed defensively. We didn’t concede many opportunities and we recovered well, especially on the offense.

I am happy for Yohan Roche who laughed at his mistake in the first match and who has just been elected Man of the match.

Morena Ramoreboli – Botswana Coach 

“In the first 45 minutes, we got one opportunity which I think we should have buried and unfortunately from very same opportunity, we conceded the other side. The sad part about this game is that we were creating in the first half but in the second half after we tried to get more possession, we were doing that but we did not really get that penetration or create more  opportunities.

It is unfortunate that this is a game of football that works on who scored more goals and who made more mistakes and in this situation we made one mistake which resulted in us conceding a goal.

When you look at them, they played all match with just one corner kick and that simply means they were not really giving us problems in terms of how they wanted to attack us. The worst part is that their defender is man of the match and that simply says, as much as he is the one who scored a goal, they were defending and defending well and unfortunately we are on the losing end today”

Yohan Roche MOTM

“It is a source of immense pride. We were aware of the people’s expectations, and we managed to stay focused to secure the win. This goal is particularly touching for me, especially after the difficulties of the first match. It was an immense joy to score the winning goal for Benin in front of my family, who are here in Morocco.

So proud to have scored this winning goal! 🇧🇯 It was a tough match against a solid Botswana team, but we did what was necessary. Happy to have contributed to this historic first victory in the Africa Cup. We keep going together! ”