Maqonda Ndlovu
The Brave Warriors atoned for the disappointing 1-0 narrow defeat to Equatorial Guinea by beating São Tomé and Príncipe 2-0 at the Stade d’Agadir in the 2026 Confederation of African Football World Cup Qualifiers in Agadir, Morocco, on Tuesday.
Having made a couple of changes to the team that faced Equatorial Guinea last week on Wednesday, the Brave Warriors were expected to cruise over the group’s weakest team, which had previously lost 4-0 to Tunisia in their match on Thursday.
The Brave Warriors started well, with Prince Tjiueza finding the back of the net within 10 minutes.
Midfielder Petrus Shitembi found Betuel Muzeu wide on the left flank – and the young striker did well to win a corner.
Tjiueza took the resultant corner kick and directly scored, with São Tomé’s 27-year-old debutant goalkeeper Pedro Leonardo Gonçalves Mateus failing to deal with the ball. Midway through the half, São Tomé’s Ronaldo Alfonso got behind Namibia’s defence and hit the side netting.
After that, neither team posed a threat, resulting in a 1-0 scoreline at halftime.
In a bid to up the tempo, Benjamin made two changes, bringing in Marcel Papama and debutant Prince Elago for Ivan Kamberipa and Shitembi.
Papama brought some much-needed urgency with his telling passes, while Elago struggled to settle in and was eventually substituted 20 minutes later.
On the other end, Alfonso twice forced some saves from goalkeeper Lloydt Kazapua, with Tjiueza blasting a promising set piece over the bar.
Disaster struck for São Tomé in the 75th minute when miscommunication between the out-of-sorts Mateus and central defender led to a tame back pass, rolling into an empty net, giving the Brave Warriors a 2-0 lead.
The match ended with a 2-0 victory for the Brave Warriors, who are now third on the log with three points behind log leaders Tunisia, who have six points and five goals scored. Second in place is Equatorial Guinea, which also has six points, but it has scored only twice. Malawi occupies fourth place, sitting on the same number of points as Namibia, but having scored and conceded one goal each. Liberia follows in fifth with no points, with São Tomé anchoring the log.
This was the first meeting between Namibia and São Tomé and Príncipe.
São Tomé’s last 10 games had produced nine defeats and a draw.
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