Zambia’s U-20 men’s national team has been eliminated from the 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, despite going unbeaten in the group stage. The Young Chipolopolo recorded three draws—against Sierra Leone, Egypt, and South Africa—and a narrow 1-0 win over Tanzania. However, the results were not enough, as they finished fourth in the group and exited the tournament.
In their final and decisive group match on Friday night, Zambia drew 0-0 with South Africa’s Amajita, ending their campaign on a disappointing note. The match had a lively start, with South Africa’s Kutlwano Letlhaku scoring in the 8th minute, only for Bonaphaseo Phiri to equalize for Zambia just three minutes later. Despite creating several chances, Zambia couldn’t find the winner.
“Very disappointing. We needed to win this game in the first half. We’d created a lot of scoring opportunities, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Zambia coach Boyd Mulwanda. “We look forward to the next edition that will come. We just have to encourage the boys to keep on your working hard. It wasn’t our day today.”
Mulwanda also pointed to poor preparation as a key factor in the team’s performance. Zambia played only one friendly match—against Ghana—just three days before the tournament. The full squad spent only a week in camp, with foreign-based players joining just two days before kickoff.
“It’s disappointing for the boys not losing a game, and then you’re out of the tournament. I think we just have to keep on talking to the boys,” Mulwanda said.
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons. I think the boys when we started the first game, they were jittery. But after the second game, they picked up, and then from there, we would see that there was an improvement from the boys. I think in the [future] when coming for such tournaments, we need to have more friendly games so that the boys get used to such environments, and they get used to playing international matches,” he added.
Since winning their first U-20 AFCON title on home soil in 2017, Zambia has now failed to progress beyond the group stage in two consecutive editions—in 2023 and 2025.
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