Cosafa battle for top two spot to gold

The TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Afcon semifinal between South Africa and Zambia will produce plenty of fireworks as the encounter will be a grudge match.

The Bruce Mwape led side denied South Africa a chance to finish on the podium at the 2021 Cosafa Women’s Championship in Gqeberha, where Banyana were looking to win the competition for a fifth consecutive time.

Zambia walked away with the bronze medal after they beat the home team 4-3 on penalties after the match ended 1-1 in regulation time.

The Copper Queens further went on to humiliate the Desiree Ellis-coached side 3-0 in a friendly match ahead of the last round of the Wafcon qualifiers.

The semifinal match between the two will be about bragging rights of the Southern region.

Zambia’s midfielder Evarine Katongo realises that the match might not be as one sided as the last time the two sides met.

“It’s going to be a tough game because both of us want to go to the final. We will have to go at it as hard as we can. It (the 3-0 victory) really giving us the motivation but when we played the friendly against South Africa, there were no professional players but this time South Africa have their professional players so this game is not going to be easy. But we are going to work extra hard, says Katongo.

The competition has been Zambia’s best in the two editions they have been involved in. Making the top four and qualifying for their first ever Fifa Women’s World Cup is a continuation from their splendid appearance at the Tokyo Olympics.

“It’s really important getting to the finals, it will bring the name of our country at a higher level. It will be a big achievement if we manage to get to the finals. To me it’s a great achievement because being part of this team playing in the Wafcon and even qualifying going to the World Cup it’s a great motivation to me to continue working hard,” adds Katongo.

Ellis stressed the importance of being focused on getting to a back-to-back final.

“Zambia have shown the quality, they have shown the resilience after they have faced a lot of adversities and their players have really come through. it’s going to be extremely difficult game. Our last two matches against Zambia didn’t go so well, but we are better than we were then. We are coming up against an opponent we well similarly they know us too but we have to be clinical to get the result,” says Ellis.

Both sides go into the game without their star players. South Africa lost Thembi Kgatlana to injury while Zambia’s Barbra Banda missed out on the competition over alleged eligibility issues.