Zambia U-17 Women National Team Coach Carol Kanyemba is not satisfied with her team’s two-goal lead ahead of the second leg tie with Uganda in the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup third-round qualifier set to be played on Friday, May 17, 2024, at St. Mary’s Stadium in Kitende, Uganda. 

The Copper Princesses defeated Uganda 2-0 in the first leg at the National Heroes Stadium on Sunday to put one leg into the fourth and final round, where they could face either Morocco or Algeria.

“Our main focus is to clean [up] the mistakes that we made, which were a lot of missed opportunities. We know that even as we go for the reverse fixture, Uganda is not going to give us an easy game because they’ve exploited our weaknesses as well and we have done that as well,” Kanyemba told journalists in Lusaka before the team’s departure for Uganda via Rwanda Air on Monday.

She continued: “So going into this game, we’re going to work on the weaknesses that we showed and we want to get enough points to qualify for the next stage.”

Kanyemba wants another cleansheet

The former Copper Queens player wants her team to maintain another clean sheet in Uganda.

“The two-nil lead is not enough to get us [through]; it’s just like the first half of the game,” she said. “We are going to score and we’re going to defend. We’ll try by all means, not to allow them to get a goal on us, but we’ll try to get a goal on them so that we have an advantage.”

Zambia last qualified for the U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2014 and will be hoping to make their second appearance this year. 

The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup takes place in the Dominican Republic from 16 October – 3 November 2024.