Before departing for the World cup that will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the Copper Queens, who had been based in Germany for more than two weeks, will play their final exhibition game against Germany at the Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer arena.
The Bruce Mwape led squad has played two international friendlies losing to Ireland 3-1 and 3-all draw with Switzerland.
Group C’s Zambia will begin their campaign against Japan, then play Costa Rica, and finish their group stage with a tantalizing matchup against Spain.
Team captain Barbra Banda said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon that she is confident the team will qualify for the knockout stage.
“We have set the target to move out of the first round and go into the second round,” said Banda.
The China-based striker said the Germany game will be a learning curve for the team as they head to the World Cup.
“Germany will give us a very good run of which we must learn something from our last friendly match away from home,” she added.
Coach Mwape encouraged his team to up their game in the last friendly match against two-time world champions, Germany.
As this will be the team’s final game, Mwape stated, “we expect our team to perform better than they have in the previous two games we have played.”
“We need to play as a unit”-Mwape.
Our goal is to play as a team at the end of the day, therefore we need to be strong in every area, Mwape stated.
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The team’s goal is to go to the knockout stage, said the 2022 WAFCON bronze medalist coach.
Our goal is to at least get to the knockout stage, which we can do by winning group games, said Mwape.