Zambia starlets beat Botswana
by Mutheliso Phiri 08 December 2012, 09:15
Zambia’s under 17 national football team defeated Botswana 2-0 in the opening match of the fifth edition of the SADC Zone VI Games played at Nkoloma Stadium on Saturday.
Paul Phiri headed in the opening goal in the 22nd minute and Chibuye Mulilo scored the second goal with a strike from outside the box in the 41st minute. George Mandu provided both assists.
And speaking to fazfootball.com in a post match interview Zambia coach Oswald Mutapa said his charges needed to win for the crowd to get behind them in upcoming fixtures.
“This is a good start for us. We needed this win especially because we need the crowd to get behind us in our next match against Seychelles,” said Mutapa.
“We want to win this on home soil. In 2008 we won bronze, in 2010 we won silver and in 2012 we want to win gold,” he added.
Botswana coach Kaizer Kobedi said his boys were over confident after they qualified to the finals tournament of the Morocco 2013 Caf Youth Championships.
“We needed this loss. My boys were over confident because they think they are among the best in Africa. I told them to approach this game differently but they did not follow instructions. However, if we meet Zambia in the semis or the final we will definitely win. It will be a different ball game,” Kobedi said.
In the days other match in Group A South Africa defeated Malawi 4-0 while in Group B Angola and Namibia played to a goalless draw. Swaziland went to the top of Group B with a 4-2 defeat of Mauritius.
In women’s football matches played on Friday, the Under 17 Zambia national football team lost 1-0 to South Africa at Nkoloma Stadium while Zimbabwe defeated Namibia 2-1.
