Why Banyana Banyana and Zambia won’t meet at Turkish Women’s Cup

The COSAFA zone’s 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup-bound duo of Banyana Banyana and Zambia will oddly not meet at this month’s round-robin 2023 Turkish Women’s Cup.

Both teams are invited to the six-nation Turkish Women’s Cup that Turkey is hosting from February 11 -22.

Banyana-Banyana and Zambia last met at the 2022 COSAFA Women’s Cup tournament last September saw the latter beat the former 1-0 in the final to win their debut regional title.

The complete list of nations joining Turkey at the week-long tournament is Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia and Banyana-Banyana South Africa.

THE FORMAT OF THE TOURNAMENT EXPLAINED

Football Association of Zambia spokesperson Sydney Mungala said the format of the tournament would see two round-robin events played in parallel.

However, it would not see Zambia play Banyana and Turkey who will be in the first pool.

But Uzbekistan and Venezuela will be the intersection set for the two-group round-robin group tournament.

And so on match-day-one Banyana Banyana will face Turkey on February 15 while Zambia will open their outing against Venezuela.

South Africa will later play Uzbekistan on February 18, and on the same date, Zambia will play Slovenia.

Zambia will face Uzbekistan in their final game on February 21 while Banyana Banyana will close their outing against Venezuela.

Banyana Banyanya and Zambia are using their first international outing for 2023 as preliminary preparations for their 2023 FIFA Women s World Cup campaign that will run from July 20 to August 20.

Australia and New Zealand are the joint hosts of this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Women AFCON champions Banyana Banyana is in Group G where they will face Sweden, Italy and Argentina.

Tournament debutants Zambia, who finished third at WAFCON last July, are in Group C where they will play Spain, Costa Rica and 2011 World champions Japan.

WAFCON runners-up Morocco and fourth-place finishers Nigeria complete Africa’s representatives at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

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