Zambia is on the brink of World Cup qualification after a hard-fought scoreless draw against Morocco in Group A of the 2025 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations (AFCON) on Thursday night.
The 2025 U-17 AFCON is being used as a qualifier for this year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup. The global event will be staged in Qatar in November. Africa has 10 slots at the 48-team global event.
To qualify, Zambia needs to finish in the top two. They are currently second in the group with four points, at par with leaders Morocco, who have a better goal difference.
Thursday’s draw has left Zambia needing a point to qualify for the World Cup. That can be achieved when they face Uganda, who are third in the group after beating Tanzania 3–0.
“Uganda, even though they lost to Morocco, they conceded early, which gave the confidence to Morocco. Coming to our game today [Thursday], they have won; they have more morale in the team,” said Ian Bakala, Zambia’s head coach.
He said his team will be prepared to face the Junior Cranes for a place at the World Cup.
“We are prepared for any team; we are not looking to see if they won or not,” Bakala said.
“We‘ve a mission to complete, which is first to qualify for the World Cup. And we will work on the mistakes we made today [Thursday] so that we can improve them and come and win the game against Uganda.”
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