Zambia beat Botswana in COSAFA U17 Girls Cup Opener

by Staff Reporter

Friday Dec 03, 2021. 09:00

Junior Shepolopolo Zambia U17 rallied from one-down at halftime to beat Botswana 3-1 on Thursday to make a winning start at the 2021 COSAFA U17 Women’s Cup in Lesotho.

This year’s COSAFA U17 Women’s and Boys Cup’s are both taking place in Maseru under the ambit of the Region 5 Youth Games that Lesotho is hosting from December 3-13.

Sereti Modisenyane gave Botswana the lead in the 29th minute to see them take a one-nil halftime lead.

Lucy Kajiya equalized for Zambia in the 48th minute to score her first of two on the day.

Zambia then wasted an opportunity to take the lead in the 68th minute when they missed a penalty when Blessings Zulu ballooned her spot-kick that Kajiya had won after she was fouled by Maduo Radijeng.

The game looked destined for a draw but Jessy Zulu broke the deadlock in the 83rd minute before Kajiya completed her brace in stoppage time.

“It wasn’t so easy. The game was tough and we are so grateful that we carried the day-and bless the coaches for training us so hard for this tournament,” Woman of The Match Jessy Zulu said.

Junior Shepolopolo are top of the pool of the three-team, round-robin tournament on 3 points following Seychelles and Zimbabwe’s decision to withdraw from the tournament citing Covid-19 concerns.

Zambia play Namibia in their final game on December 4 that will see the top two finishers meet in the final playoff on December 6.