Friday, March 29, 2024

We planned for it- Bakala on win over South Africa

Zambia U17 national team boss Ian Bakala says his team planned for their final group B match against arch rivals South Africa. 

Bakala described the match as tough but revealed that he expected that and knew his team would still carry the day. 

Marcel Zimba scored the only goal of the game to edge the South Africans and help Zambia to finish top of group B. 

“It was a tough game, we planned for it. South Africa had a good side, it was a balanced affair. Like I said earlier, it was a tough match but we managed to win,” Bakala said. 

“We just have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do against Botswana. We have to make the team perform well again and get a result.”

Meanwhile South Africa boss Duncan Crowie relished the challenge provided by the Young Copper Bullets to his side.

“Firstly congratulations to Zambia for the victory, Like the coach said, We knew it will be a tough game. We wanted to see how our players would perform against a team like Zambia,” he said. 

“We made changes but that is not an excuse. Whenever we put a team on the field everyone wants to win and we did not get that goal. They were under a lot of pressure but in the second half we dealt with the balls that came our way and were happy with how we finished the game. We were not happy with the result but we are glad that we got through to the semifinals.”

The semifinal line-up is now complete with Zambia to take on Botswana and South Africa to meet hosts Malawi. Both matches will be played on Friday.

The two finalists in this year’s competition each win a place at the TotalEnergies U17 AFCON Algeria 2023 in April.

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