Beginnings The team played its first international match against
Malawi, winning 2–0. For the first decade, the national team only played
Malawi and
Zambia, failing to register a single win from 1969 until 1984, when they beat
Lesotho 3–1 in a friendly at home. Following the Lesotho win, Eswatini entered the
1986 African Cup of Nations qualifiers for the first time, losing 1–8 on aggregate to
Zimbabwe. The team then entered the
1987 All-Africa Games qualifiers however they lost 2–9 on aggregate against
Malawi. The first time that Eswatini progressed past the first round of a qualifying competition was for the
1990 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, beating
Tanzania 3–1 on penalties after drawing the tie 2–2. In the second round they faced
Malawi who knocked them out again, 1–3 after two legs. Eswatini next entered the
1990 SADCC Tournament, advancing past the group stage on goal difference ahead of
Malawi, before losing to
Zimbabwe on penalties (5–3) in the semi-finals following a 4–4 draw after extra-time. In the
1992 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Eswatini beat
Zambia (2–1) during the preliminary group stage but finished in third and failed to progress. Eswatini entered the
1994 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time, but ended up in second place behind
Cameroon thereby not advancing to the final round. For the
1998 World Cup first qualification round, Eswatini lost twice to
Gabon (0–1 and 0–2) and were eliminated. They failed to make it past the first qualifying round for the inaugural
1997 COSAFA Cup, where they lost 0–4 to
Mozambique, and in the
1998 COSAFA Cup where they lost to an own-goal in extra-time against
Angola (0–1). Eswatini returned to the
2000 African Cup of Nations qualification matches after missing the previous three tournaments but they fell 2–3 against
Madagascar and were eliminated. They managed to qualify for the
1999 COSAFA Cup after beating
Mozambique 3–1 in the qualifiers, then beat
Zimbabwe in the quarter-finals 4–3 on penalties after drawing 1–1 in regular time, with
Bongani Mdluli having scored the equaliser for Eswatini in the 89th minute. In the semi-finals they lost to
Namibia on penalties, 2–4.
21st century Eswatini were eliminated by
Angola in the
2002 World Cup qualifiers, losing 1–8 on aggregate. They then lost to
Kenya in the
2002 African Cup of Nations qualification round 3–5. Their next success in a competition came in the
2002 COSAFA Cup where they qualified ahead of
Namibia (2–1) and beat
Zimbabwe (2–0) to advance to the semis. There they lost to
South Africa (1–4) who would go on to win the tournament. In the
2004 AFCON qualifiers, Eswatini finished third in their group, two points behind
Libya and three behind
DR Congo therefore missing out on qualification. In the following tournaments, Eswatini failed to progress past the first qualifying round. They finished bottom of their qualifying groups until
2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification where they finished in second on goal-difference ahead of
Guinea but were three points off of qualifying, behind
Zimbabwe. In the
2018 World Cup qualifying, Eswatini thrashed
Djibouti 8–1 over two legs, but were beaten 0–2 by
Nigeria to end their hopes of qualification. ==Results and fixtures==