Benin head coach, Gernot Rohr, says the slim victory recorded over Botswana in the ongoing TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025, guarantee his team a chance to play in the knockout stage.
“This victory is important to us because it gives us a chance to qualify for the next round,” Rohr said in his post-match analysis.
According to him, the team proved their defensive progress with the 1-0 win over the Southeen African side. “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,” Rohr said.
Roche’s first-half strike in the 28 minute proved decisive as Benin reignited their AFCON Round of 16 qualification hopes.
It was also the first ever victory at the AFCON for the Franco-German led side, which saw Rohr’s men respond positively after their opening-day defeat to DR Congo.
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Meanwhile, Botswana’s ambitions of a first-ever progression to the knockout stage suffered a major setback following a second consecutive loss.
The Cheetahs 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.
The West African side’s 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.
“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,” Morena Ramoreboli, Botswana head coach, said after the match.
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.
“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,” Ramoreboli said.
Botswana pushed forward in the closing stages in search of a lifeline, but lacked the cutting edge required to trouble the Beninese defence.
“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,” Ramoreboli added.
The Zebras will conclude their Group D campaign against DR Congo in Rabat on Tuesday, while Benin face former champions Senegal who were forced to a 1-1 draw by DR Congo in Tangier on the same day, knowing that a positive result could secure their place in the knockout phase.
