Zambia’s U17 Women’s National Team has been eliminated from the 2024
FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup after losing their second game in Group D to Poland 2-0 on Monday morning following their 1-0 loss in the first match against Brazil.
This year was Zambia’s second appearance in the U-17 Women’s World Cup, their debut having occurred in 2014 in Costa Rica. While they were also eliminated at the group stage in that tournament, they had managed to secure a win, sparking hopes that this year might see an improvement in their performance. Unfortunately, the results did not go their way.
Zambia begun their campaign on Friday when they played Brazil whom they had managed to contain but eventually conceded a goal and they lost 1-0.
In the match against Poland, Zambia started brightly and dominated large portions of play, but early goals in both halves proved to be their undoing. Kinga Wyrwas struck in the seventh minute to give Poland the lead, and Weronika Arasniewicz added a second goal just after the restart in the 46th minute, leaving Zambia with an uphill battle. Despite Zambia's control over possession and their relentless efforts, they were unable to find the back of the net.
Zambia created so many chances but they were not clinical on goal. The inability to score especially in away games has been a recurring problem for the Copper Princesses. They have now failed to score in five consecutive games which started in the qualifiers.
Zambia’s U17 national team captain, Zangose Blessings Zulu, expressed her disappointment after the game, acknowledging the team’s hard work but lamenting their mistakes.
“We are disappointed,” said Zulu. “We played well and did everything we could, but we made some mistakes. Even after conceding, we kept fighting, we didn’t give up. We wanted to get back in the game, but it just wasn’t our day.”
The loss to Poland sealed Zambia’s exit from the tournament, leaving them with one final group-stage match to play. Their next match is against Japan on Wednesday who beat Brazil 2-1 to move to four points, while Poland will take on Brazil in another Group D match.
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