Zambia Women’s U20 national team head coach Charles Haalubono says the team is looking okay ahead of this afternoon’s Costa Rica/Panama 2020 FIFA World Cup preliminary round return leg against South Africa.
Haalubono has also confirmed that defender Thelma Phiri has been ruled out of the match due to injury.
“They are looking okay, The pitch is very good to play from. The only challenge we have is Thelma Phiri who has a knee injury and is not ready to play so on that position we will make adjustments,” he said.
Meanwhile, striker Maylan Mulenga is anticipating a tough match from Basetsana and says the team needs to double their efforts.
The team had a training session at the match venue, The Orlando Stadium.
“Today’s (yesterday) training was good, The game will be tough and we need to work hard to win the game. We need to double our efforts because it won’t be easy,” she said.
The Junior Copper Queens and Batsetsana will lock horns with each other this afternoon at Orlando Stadium. Kick-Off for the match is set at 15:00hrs.
South Africa head into this encounter with a two-nil advantage from the first leg and Zambia needs to overturn this deficit to progress to the next round.
The winner between these two sides will progress to the next round where they will meet Botswana who thrashed Namibia 9-0 on aggregate.
