12 February 2022 – Zambia senior women’s team proved too strong for the visiting Banyana Banyana in a friendly International match played at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka, Zambia on Saturday afternoon.
The Copper Queens, spurred on by the home support, started off on the front foot.
Tokyo Olympic star Barbra Banda who was has been in fine form lately, opened the scoring for the home team as early as the sixth minute before Avell Chitundu doubled Zambia’s lead on the 30th minute.
The visitors found themselves playing at Zambia’s tempo as they struggled to find their normal zeal.
Barbara completed her brace in the 38th minute and the teams went to the break with the Copper Queens in the driving seat.
It was a much improved second half from Banyana Banyana but the team was unable to get a breakthrough and Zambia’s three goals were enough to seal the victory for the hosts.
Speaking at the post match presser Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis expressed her disappointment but believes it was a good preparation for the team ahead of AWCON qualifier against Algeria.
“I think we did not pitch today. We said they will try to find Banda and it happened the way we said. We did not cover each other and when we did not cope well with long balls. And when we had the ball, we did not have players available to play the ball,” said Ellis.
“Sometimes when you play, you have one department that’s not working but today we had all departments not working.
“Credit to coach Bruce, his team came out from the start to put us under pressure. We have more players coming in and we have to go back and see what we need to work on, ” added Ellis.
“We had a much better second half but it was not good enough we were poor today,” concluded Ellis.
Banyana Banyana will travel back to South Africa on Sunday 13, February to continue preparations for the two-legged encounter against Algeria on 18 and 23 February 2022.