PSL stars Willard Katsande and Anthony Laffor will not be going to next year's African Nations Cup finals after shock upset results on Sunday knocked their respective countries out of the qualifiers.
But Joel Mogorosi of Bloemfontein Celtic proved the hero for Botswana as they advanced to the next stage of the qualifiers for Morocco 2015.
The winger, who is the new skipper of his country's national team, scored the only goal as Botswana beat Burundi 1-0 in Lobatse to win the tie by a single goal on aggregate.
Zimbabwe were held to a 2-2 draw by Tanzania in the second leg of the first-round knockout tie in Harare and are eliminated in a setback for the country that had been expected to show vast improvement after reaching the semifinals of the CHAN 2014 tournament in Cape Town earlier this year.
Katsande scored a rare goal though Zimbabwe went out after losing 0-1 in the first leg - which the Kaizer Chiefs midfielder missed because he went instead to the PSL awards in Sandton. It made him extremely unpopular in his home country even though he was back for the return match and got the goal that brought the score back to 2-2 for the final 15 minutes.
But Zimbabwe, despite having Cuthbert Malajila of Mamelodi Sundowns and Tendai Ndoro of Mpumalanga Black Aces in attack, still had to score twice more to qualify and failed. "Luck was not on our side but we really appreciate the support that was shown by the fans. We have to look to the future.
"I think we need to focus on the next campaign because we still have a lot of youngsters in the squad," Katsande told local reporters.
But the fallout from Zimbabwe's early elimination has begun, with yesterday's edition of The Herald newspaper of Harare imitating SA Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula by labelling the Zimbabwe national team "A bunch of losers", and calling coach Ian Gorowa "clueless".
Laffor missed a good chance as Liberia were beaten 2-0 by Lesotho on the artificial pitch in Maseru on Sunday and went out 2-1 on aggregate.
It is a major triumph for the plucky Basothos, whose coach Leslie Notsi left just months ago to join United FC in the National First Division.
Namibia, with six players from the PSL in their starting line-up, lost 3-0 to Congo in Pointe Noire to go out of the competition.
Misses and hits at Afcon
PSL stars Willard Katsande and Anthony Laffor will not be going to next year's African Nations Cup finals after shock upset results on Sunday knocked their respective countries out of the qualifiers.
But Joel Mogorosi of Bloemfontein Celtic proved the hero for Botswana as they advanced to the next stage of the qualifiers for Morocco 2015.
The winger, who is the new skipper of his country's national team, scored the only goal as Botswana beat Burundi 1-0 in Lobatse to win the tie by a single goal on aggregate.
Zimbabwe were held to a 2-2 draw by Tanzania in the second leg of the first-round knockout tie in Harare and are eliminated in a setback for the country that had been expected to show vast improvement after reaching the semifinals of the CHAN 2014 tournament in Cape Town earlier this year.
Katsande scored a rare goal though Zimbabwe went out after losing 0-1 in the first leg - which the Kaizer Chiefs midfielder missed because he went instead to the PSL awards in Sandton. It made him extremely unpopular in his home country even though he was back for the return match and got the goal that brought the score back to 2-2 for the final 15 minutes.
But Zimbabwe, despite having Cuthbert Malajila of Mamelodi Sundowns and Tendai Ndoro of Mpumalanga Black Aces in attack, still had to score twice more to qualify and failed. "Luck was not on our side but we really appreciate the support that was shown by the fans. We have to look to the future.
"I think we need to focus on the next campaign because we still have a lot of youngsters in the squad," Katsande told local reporters.
But the fallout from Zimbabwe's early elimination has begun, with yesterday's edition of The Herald newspaper of Harare imitating SA Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula by labelling the Zimbabwe national team "A bunch of losers", and calling coach Ian Gorowa "clueless".
Laffor missed a good chance as Liberia were beaten 2-0 by Lesotho on the artificial pitch in Maseru on Sunday and went out 2-1 on aggregate.
It is a major triumph for the plucky Basothos, whose coach Leslie Notsi left just months ago to join United FC in the National First Division.
Namibia, with six players from the PSL in their starting line-up, lost 3-0 to Congo in Pointe Noire to go out of the competition.
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