Zambia U-20 men’s national team head coach Boyd Mulwanda has admitted that his team underestimated Angola, leading to their 3-1 defeat in the COSAFA U-20 Championship opener in Maputo, Mozambique.
The tournament also serves as qualifiers for the TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.
“We came into this game thinking we are defending champions, and we thought it was going to be easy for us. It’s a lesson we’ve learned from Angola—they came at us very strong,” Mulwanda said after the match.
The COSAFA U-20 defending champions began their title defense on a poor note, falling to Angola in their Group B opener.
Despite Zambia starting the match well, Mulwanda pointed to the 28th-minute penalty that shifted momentum in Angola’s favor.
“We started well, but along the way, we gave away that penalty, and it changed the game. Angola took advantage of that—they defended well and were more organized than us,” Mulwanda explained.
Angola doubled their lead just three minutes later in the 31st minute, taking a 2-0 advantage into halftime.
Zambia managed to pull one back through Perkins Mumba Mwale in the 73rd minute, but an own goal by Fostine Mwenya in the 90th minute restored Angola’s two-goal cushion, sealing Zambia’s defeat.
Mulwanda revealed that Zambia’s game plan was to play short passes and break down Angola’s defense, but the plan failed due to Angola’s solid defensive performance.
Mulwanda optimistic ahead of remaining ties.
“We planned to play short passes to penetrate their defense, but they were too solid for us. We couldn’t break through, and they hit us on the counter, which worked for them,” he added.
Despite the setback, Mulwanda remains optimistic that his team will bounce back in the remaining group matches, having learned valuable lessons from the loss.
“The two games ahead of us, we will approach them with a positive mindset. The boys have learned one or two things from this game,” he said.
Zambia will next face Namibia in their second and final group match, following Madagascar’s withdrawal from the tournament.
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Group winners and runners-up go to the knockout stage, and the top two teams at the conclusion of the competition will qualify to the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.
