Copper Queens look to bounce back

by Graeme Jackson

Saturday Jul 27, 2024. 11:10

Zambia will look to bounce back from an opening defeat in the women’s football tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games when they face Australia at Stade de Nice on the evening of Sunday 28 July.

Kick-off is at 19:00 CAT.

‘The Copper Queens’ suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of the United States in their Group B opener on Thursday night – though it could have been a lot worse for the Southern Africans, who did well to stop the bleeding after finding themselves three goals and a player down inside the opening 35 minutes.

‘The Matildas’ suffered a similar fate in their opening match, as they were outclassed 3-0 by Germany in Marseille, leaving this clash as a ‘must-win’ for both teams if they are to have any realistic hope of advancing into the knockout rounds.

Zambia will be without defender Pauline Zulu, who was sent off against the USA, while coach Bruce Mwape remains optimistic of his side’s chances.

“Fans shouldn’t lose hope, we still have two more games to go, we can still qualify to the quarterfinals, and it’s not the end of the world,” said Mwape.

“It was a bad result but the girls did well especially in the second half. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half and they capitalised on those mistakes but in the second half, we picked up.”

In head-to-head stats, this will be the first meeting of Australia and Zambia in a competitive women’s fixture.

The match will be refereed by Venezuelan Emikar Calderas, with the other Group B fixture between the USA and Germany being played later on Sunday evening in Marseille.