Zambia beat Zimbabwe 1-0 to progress to the final of the 2023 COSAFA Women’s Championship. The semifinal clash took place at Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria on Friday afternoon. Coach Shadreck Mlauzi was not on the Mighty Warriors bench and watched the game from the stands. Assistant coach Yohane Chikaola took charge of the team, together with another assistant, Sithethelelwe Sibanda.
There was also controversy in the Mighty Warriors camp ahead of the semifinal clash following allegations of sexual misconduct by an unnamed male technical team member on a player. Zimbabwe made an early press and created a few attacks.
The Copper Queens soon settled and took the game to their opponents as they started to retain more possession. They came close to goal twice inside the first ten minutes through Evarine Katongo and Sarah Jere’s efforts. The Mighty Warriors tried to push forward but struggled to creat any meaningful chance in the following moments.
Zambia opened the scoring six minutes into the second half through Jere’s beautiful solo effort. The defending champions almost doubled the lead towards the hour after creating two big chances. The first attempt came from Susan Banda and it crashed against post.
The other one was from a free-kick and was superbly saved by Cynthia Shonga. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, registered just a single goal attempt in the second period when Maud Mafuruse’s long range strike was saved by the keeper. The game ended in favour of Zambia, who got the passage through to the final.
Source Soccer24News
