South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies and Botswana’s Double Ladies Action opened their respective CAF Women’s Champions League qualifying campaigns with comprehensive wins.
The favourites Sundowns thumped their Lesotho Defence Force counterparts 6-0 on Thursday afternoon, hours after Double Action had hammered Manzini Wanderers from Eswatini 3-0.
Both Cosafa qualifying games for the four-member Group A took place at King Zwelithini Stadium where Andisiye Mgcoyi was the most outstanding player across the two games.
Mgcoyi walked off the pitch with a player-of-the match award after scoring a hat-trick in the game against the girls from Lesotho.
It took barely five minutes for Sundowns to put their noses in front through Mgcoyi before Rhoda Mulaudzi doubled the advantage 15 minutes later.
Lesotho Defence Force held on to prevent further damage until half-time which ended with Sundowns leading 2-0.
However, in the second-half, there was little Lesotho Defence Force could do to avoid conceding more goals.
The ladies from Lesotho found themselves trailing 3-0 some 15 minutes into the second-half and the scorer this time around was Melinda Kgadiete.
Six minutes later, Sundowns went out of reach from their Lesotho counterparts as Mgcoyi grabbed her double then a hat-trick three minutes later to make it 5-0 for the hosts.
Mgcoyi was eventually substituted for Boitumelo Rabale after the South Africans were certain of maximum points.
The South Africans completed their rout with Rabale scoring in added time for Sundowns to win 6-0.
In an earlier match marking the start of the tournament, Double Ladies Action thrashed Wanderers with Laona Moloi, Lesego Radiakanyo and Gaonyadiwe Ontlametse the scorers.
Action for three-team Group B kicks-of Friday when Green Buffaloes Ladies from Zambia face Black Rhinos Queens of Zimbabwe.
TURA Magic from Namibia are the pool’s other team.
The Cosafa region overall champion will qualify for the Women’s Champions League finals, joining other teams from other CAF zones later this year.
FRIDAY’S FIXTURE:
Group B
Green Buffaloes vs Black Rhinos Queens (KO 14h00; 12h00 GMT)