Zambia Women’s national team head coach Naomi Phiri was left impressed with the fight from her girls to edge Malawi on post match penalties to book a place in the final.
The Copper Princesses beat the Young Scorchers 3-1 on post match penalties in a ‘tough’ encounter to qualify to their third straight final in the COSAFA U17 Women’s Championship.
Phiri also went on to explain the absence of skipper Lubasi Pumulo who sat on the bench.
Phiri revealed that the Green Buffaloes tricky midfielder was not feeling well and could not play and only sat on the bench to the other players.
“Today’s (Wednesday) game was so tight, I knew that we would face a tough test. It was unfortunate that we conceded two goals but all in all I congratulate my Girls because they worked hard,” she said.
“Lubasi is not feeling well but we decided that she sits on the bench to encourage her friends. She was not going to play today because of a medical reason.”
“We planned to attack and we saw that our friends were compact and did not allow us to penetrate,” she added.
The Copper Princesses’ defense was breached for the first time in this tournament on Wednesday, Twice by Rose Kadzere and Phiri says the team will work on it ahead of the final.
“Many lessons have been learned, maybe our girls underrated Malawi because they saw them play. I had indicated earlier that no team would be easy for us,” she said.
“We will work on our defense after the real challenge from Malawi. We will now make corrections as we approach the final.”
Meanwhile Malawi boss Trevor Kajawa described the loss to Zambia as painful but was proud of the performance from his girls.
Kajawa is confident the game had more positives than negatives and that with time Malawi will form a good Women’s senior team with his players at the core.
“Very painful but a lesson learned. We gave Zambia a good game, no one gave us a chance that we can match the Zambians but I need to congratulate my Girls for the good performance, penalties are like that. I feel we are building a good team for the future scorchers national team,” he said.
“The girls showed some good character. If we can keep this team, we will have a very good team in the future.”
“Lessons learned, we are building a team. Am proud of my girls for the performance from my girls in today’s game. We had more positives than negatives,” he added.
Rose Kadzere’s brace drew Malawi level twice after Jessy Zulu and Blessings Zangose Zulu put Zambia in the lead.
Zambia went on to win 3-1 with Jessy Zulu, Bwalya Namute Chileshe and Blessings Zangose Zulu all converting their spot kicks while Theresa Musatila had her penalty saved.
For Malawi only Rose Kadzere converted with Faith Chinzimu ,and Leticia Chinyamula hitting the crossbar while Margaret Phiri saved Sarah Mulimbika’s spot kick.
The Copper Princesses will meet either South Africa or Botswana in the final on Sunday 11 December at 14h30.
