The Zambia Women’s National Team advanced to the semi-final of the 2023 Cosafa Championship following their 5-1 win over Comoros on Tuesday.
Fridah Kabwe scored a hat-trick, with Lushomo Mweemba and Sarah Jere scoring the other goals.
Assistant coach Florence Mwila, who is in charge of the team at the tournament, made four changes to the starting eleven.
Jackline Nkole and Natasha Nanyangwe were ruled out due to injuries and replaced by Judith Soko and Maylan Mulenga.
Agness Phiri was replaced by hat-trick heroine Fridah Kabwe, and Vast Phiri made her tournament debut in place of Esther Banda.
Mwila praised the players for their impressive performances.
“We came with a totally new team; we knew that our Group B was stronger. Everyone was going to give us competition.
She added: “I think the confidence levels are going high for the new girls. We see the new players getting hat-tricks and scoring goals, then we know that we are headed in the right direction.”
“We are ready for any team in the semifinals”- Mwila
She believes the win was good motivation for the team, as they will face tougher opponents in the semifinals.
“It was an important thing to qualify for the next round,” said the 2023 Zambian Female coach of the year. “Because it would have been embarrassing for the defending champions to be out of the tournament in the group stages.
“Any team that qualifies, we are ready to face them; it’s either Zimbabwe or Botswana. We have seen our areas of weakness and those are the ones we need to seal in order to come into the semi-finals because the teams we are going to face are tough.”
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The Copper Queens topped Group B with seven points, ahead of second-placed Mozambique on goal difference.
Zambia will await the winner of the match between Botswana and Zimbabwe for their semifinal tie.
