Zambia under 17 National Women’s National Team on Friday afternoon suffered their first defeat of the 2019 Inaugural COSAFA Women’s Under 17 Championship and missed an opportunity to book a place in the finals after going down 2-1 to South Africa in a tightly contested Semifinal match that could have gone either way.
Junior Copper Queens Coach Kaluba Kangwa made only one change to the starting lineup that edged the host nation Mauritius 8-0 on Tuesday with Dorica Malunga given a starting berth ahead of Patricia Mumba on the left-back position.
The game started evenly poised with both teams testing each other but South Africa was quicker to adapt than their Zambian counterpart and was able to discover their rhythm a few minutes into the match.
Oyisa Marhasi opened the scoring with a tap in after Zambian Goalkeeper Inghu’tu Muchahabali spilled a shot from the edge of the box from South African captain Jessica Wade after some exquisite interchange of passes on the D-Zone.
The Junior Copper Queens quickly reorganized themselves and Maweta Chilenga restored parity just before the half-hour mark with an excellent strike outside the 18-yard box leaving south Africa Goalkeeper Karabo Mohale with no chance.
Both teams went at the break sharing spoils with a 1-1 scoreline.
With only a few minutes into the second half, Bantwana skipper Wade utilized a free-kick opportunity which went over past Muchahabali to score the 2nd goal for South Africa which proved so important and was the difference of the two sides.
This win for South Africa meant that they set up a mouthwatering clash against East African Guests Uganda who eased past a powerless Botswana side 12-Nil with Fauzia Nanjemba scoring a double Hatrick while Margaret Kunihira and top goal scorer Juliet Nalukenge who has so far scored a record 17 goals in 4 games scored a Hatrick each to make sure that the Young Crested Cranes book themselves a spot in the final.
Zambia and Botswana will battle it out for Bronze in the 3rd and 4th Play-Off while Uganda will lock horns with South Africa in a quest to lift the trophy and settle for Gold.
Both matches will be played tomorrow Sunday 29th September 2019 at the St. François Xavier Stadium.
