Before leaving for a month-long training camp in Europe in preparation for the 2023 world cup, the Copper Queens managed a one nil victory over Twiga stars of Tanzania to give the home crowd a proper sendoff match on home soil.
Substitute Comfort Selemani scored the goal in the 69th minute to give the Copper Queens a slender victory.
The Tanzanian Twiga stars resisted the Bruce Mwape-coached team’s dominance in both halves of play.
Rachael Kundananji, a Spanish-based player, and Captain Barbara Banda displayed some of their customary cunning, but despite multiple opportunities offered to them, they were unable to convert any of them into goals.
The defense led by Agness Musesa and Martha Tembo remained solid as they dealt with any challenge presented to them with so much easy.
Evelyn-Susan Katongo established herself as the crowd’s favorite in the middle of the field by dazzling them with her talents and precise passes whenever she had the ball in her hands.
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Hundreds of supporters flocked to the 7,000-seater capacity Woodland’s stadium to say goodbye to the Copper Queens before trekking to Europe.
On June 22, the Copper queens will play Ireland, the 22nd-ranked team in the world, followed by Switzerland, the 20th-ranked team, eight days later.
The next opponent for the Copper Queens will be Germany, who are presently ranked second in the world and have won eight European Championships and two World Championships.
Zambia and Tanzania have now met nine times and among them Zambia has four wins over Tanzania. The Twiga Stars only have one win over the Copper Queens, and both have drawn four times in nine meetings.
