The Zambia Women’s U-17 National Team will kick off their 2024 FIFA U-17 World Cup qualifying campaign against Tanzania at the Nkolomo Stadium in Lusaka.
The U-17 Women’s World Cup will for the first time be hosted in the Dominican Republic from October 16– November 3, 2024.
Carol Kayemba, Zambia’s head coach, has declared her team ready for the match, stating that they have prepared adequately and are confident they will win.
“We have told the girls that this is their chance to qualify and put yourselves on the world map. I have told them to emulate the Barbra Banda-led team that qualified for the U-17 and senior World Cups as well as the Olympics.
“We have put in everything and we are confident we will win tomorrow. We want to go to the World Cup,” she told BolaNews.
The winner of Zambia’s two-legged match against Tanzania will advance to the third round of qualifiers, where they will face the winner of Uganda versus Cameroon.
The third round will feature twelve countries, with the top six vying for Africa’s three spots at the finals.
Team captain Zangose Zulu not scared of big Tanzanian girls
There have been concerns about the Zambian team’s physical stature in comparison to their opponents, who appear to be bigger, but team captain Zangose Zulu says it doesn’t matter.
“We are very much ready,” she said. “We don’t care about how big they are. Size doesn’t matter. We want to score many goals tomorrow and hopefully emulate what our seniors did by qualifying for the World Cup.”
Meanwhile, Tanzania’s coach Hilda Joseph said despite her players appearing big in their physical stature, they are very young.
“They are young players who are under that age (17), so I think everything is clear, so I don’t think you can give you more answers than that because I believe there are no players who are older in my team.”
Zambia will aim to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup for the first time since 2014. Tanzania, on the other hand, competed in the 2022 edition and advanced to the quarterfinals.
The East Africans will look to qualify again and hope to build on their previous success.
The second leg will be played on February 10, in Tanzania.
