Football

MBABANE – Sihlangu head coach, Zdravko Logarusic, has delivered a controvesial assessment of his team’s professional credentials following a decisive 3-0 defeat to the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on Thursday night.

The defeat resulted in Sihlangu being officially eliminated from the 2026 FIFA World Cup race. In a post-match interview, Logarusic made a stark statement about his players, stressing that the squad is composed of mostly part-time footballers.

“We only have one professional footballer. The rest are policemen, teachers and soldiers who play the game part-time,” he stated. The defeat, which marked Sihlangu’s fifth loss in seven games, leaves them at the bottom of Group D with a mere two points.

According to Logarusic, the formidable Cameroon team was simply too much for his squad to handle.

“For the first 10 to 15 minutes, we did not tackle properly, and they scored goals. Later in the first half, we started to realise that and made some changes,” he said.

The Croatian gaffer said he then told players in the changing room to forget about the first half and play a draw with Cameroon in the second.

“I thank Marc Brys for slowing down the rhythm in the second half, as we started to play a bit,” he said.

The match began in the worst possible way for Eswatini. An unfortunate own goal from defender Gift Gamedze just six minutes in gave the home side the lead. Cameroon capitalised on the early momentum with Georges-Kévin Nkoudou doubling the lead in the 25^th minute and Arthur Avom sealing the result by the half-hour mark.

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Sihlangu head coach Zdravko Logarusic. (Pic: Ntombikayise Gwebu)