After an impressive group stage campaign in which they defeated Indonesia 3-1 and Honduras 5-2 before drawing 1-1 with four-time champions Brazil, Zambia has been drawn against fellow African side Mali in the round of 32 at the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Zambia will meet Mali on Friday, 14th November, at the Mahmoud Stadium. The Junior Chipolopolo boys finished second in their group with the same number of points (7) as Brazil, but were separated on goal difference.

Mali also finished second in Group L after beating New Zealand 3-0 and Saudi Arabia 2-0 before losing 3-0 to Australia.

Reacting to the draw, Zambia’s head coach Dennis Makinka described it as an interesting matchup, noting the many similarities in the two teams’ styles of play.

“I think this is the moment that we’ve been waiting for. An interesting draw against African brothers. I think it’s going to be a good game,” Makinka said. “Knowing how Mali plays, they are a very physical team as well — very entertaining. We expect a good game, and we are looking forward to this. I think to be the best, you have to play the best. So I think for us, this is a good draw.”

Makinka does not want his boys to get ahead of themselves following their impressive group stage campaign.

“As we have always said, we take each game as it comes. So this is a different game. The Brazil game was different. This is another game. So we treat it differently, seriously, and knowing that these are knockout stages, there’s nothing like we draw or what. One team has to win. So we need to prepare well and just work hard to get the win.”

The winner between Zambia and Mali will face the winner between the United States of America and Morocco in the round of 16.

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