Following their historic progression to the round of 16 at the 2025 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the Copper Princesses will face Canada for a place in the quarterfinals.

Zambia began their campaign on a disappointing note, losing 2-1 to Paraguay and 2-0 to Japan before thrashing New Zealand on Saturday night to qualify as one of the four best third-placed teams, alongside Nigeria, Morocco, and the Netherlands — all of whom finished the group stage with three points.

They now face a Canadian side that has conceded only one goal and won all three of their group stage matches.

Canada began with a 4-2 win over Nigeria, followed by a 6-0 thrashing of Samoa, and concluded their group with a 2-1 victory over France.

Copper Princesses coach Carol Kanyemba is aware of the challenge ahead.

“We promised to give Zambians such a result, because I know what the girls are capable of doing. But knowing that at this stage most of us have not been here, they get jittery at times. But we spoke to them and told them to give their all as they play this final group game, and the best would definitely come out of it,” Kanyemba said after recording her first-ever victory at the tournament against New Zealand.

“And we thank God, whatever they did, they put in the best and definitely it has yielded results.”

She continued: “So even as we prepare to play against Canada, we are sending the same message to the girls. Canada has been doing very fine in the group stages. Being a developmental tournament, I think it’s a very good test for our girls to see how we can be able to contain such a team and also penetrate their defense. So it will really be a good test for our girls.”

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