Coach Bruce Mwape admits Zambia must be very ruthless regardless of its opponent following a narrow win over Eswatini at the 2022 COSAFA Women’s Championship.
Eswatini on Tuesday escaped with a slender 2-0 loss to Zambia in their final Group B match in Port Elizabeth to see the former exit with three straight defeats.
Zambia advanced to the semifinals on a maximum of nine points, and the win came 48 hours after they humbled Lesotho 7-0 in their penultimate Group B match.
Zambia has now scored 11 goals without reply as they chase their debut COSAFA Women’s title two months after winning their first-ever Bronze at the 2022 Women’s AFCON.
“I don’t think we struggled; it is just that we were not accurate in our finishing. They were applying the wrong technique, and we could have scored a lot of goals, especially in the first half,” Mwape said.
Eswatini also had goalkeeper Gcinile Dlamini to thank, who stood firm against Zambia’s rampant captain and striker Barbara Banda.
It took 40 minutes for the deadlock to be broken when Banda laid off for the ball for Eneless Phiri and the Zambia captain sealed the victory with an 83rd-minute free kick.
“Otherwise, the game was just okay. We created a lot of chances, and we could have scored at least seven goals,” Mwape added.
“We need to work on our finishing; whether it is a small or big team, we need to make sure that each time we get a scoring chance, we need to get goals.”
Zambia now awaits the winner from Thursday’s Group C fixtures, where a tight race to finish top and second best is set to light up the final group stage games.
Malawi and defending champions Tanzania are tied on 4 points and meet in a top two showdown for a spot to face Zambia on September 9.
Botswana, on two points, is chasing a best second-place finish and takes on winless Comoros, who have zero points.
