ZAMBIA have kept alive their hopes of lifting the Africa Netball Cup title after beating Namibia 52-42 in what is the team’s second straight win at the tournament.

Zambia have backed their 62-47 win over eSwatini with a 52-42 victory over Namibia today to lead the table with four points, on par with Botswana but with a better goal difference.

The Africa Netball Cup is being played in Botswana, where six teams are competing for the title. The group stage is being played in a round-robin format.

After the group stage, the top two teams will play the final to determine the champions.

Coach Lazarous Tembo made two changes from the team that beat eSwatini. Defender Esther Kunda started ahead of Beenzu Nawa while veteran Diana Banda paved the way for Memory Mshanga.

Both Namibia and Zambia went into the game on the back of wins.

(Mwebantu, Thursday, 30th November, 2023)

ANGOLA coach Sousa Garcia is not looking forward to Tuesday’s second leg match against the Copper Queens following a 6-0 humiliation yesterday.

Zambia were a class above Angola in the Africa Cup of Nations final round first leg qualifier at the June 22 Stadium in Luanda.

Skipper Barbra Banda scored a hat trick while Ireen Lungu, Lushomo Mweemba and Rachael Kundananji scored a goal each to determine the game in Zambia’s favour.

With the second leg coming up, Garcia is dreading that he has to face Zambia again given the gap in quality between the Copper Queens and his team.

“It was not a good result, Zambia played well. They have better players than us. We need to keep working and we need to improve,” he said, “Look, I can see that the knockout stage has ended for us. I need to give experience to my players. We will try to play the way we want to play. It will be difficult for us,”

Meanwhile, Banda is still determined to inflict more pain on Angola in the second leg.

“It was not an easy game, we played well and created a lot of chances,” Banda said, “We still have a way to go we are not underrating them we want to come and finish them at home,”

The second leg has been set for Tuesday at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.

(Mwebantu, Thursday, 30th November, 2023)

THE Copper Queens have put in a ‘six start’ performance against Angola to edge closer to an AfCON qualification in the first leg of the qualifiers in Luanda.

The 6-0 win means Angola need to beat Zambia 7-0 at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in the second leg to qualify to the Africa Cup of Nations that will be staged in Morocco.

It was a perfect performance. Skipper Barbra Banda scored hattrick while there were goals from Irene Lungu and defender Lushomo Mweemba.

Mweemba set the ball rolling in the 40th minute, before Banda scored from the spot after Zambia were awarded a penalty in the 42nd minute.

At the stroke of half time, Banda completed her brace in to take the scoreline to 3-0.

Leading 3-0 at the break, the team did not drop its mojo, making it 4 – 0 through midfielder Irene Lungu in the 52nd minute.

Banda completed her hattrick in the 57th minute to give Zambia a comfortable win.

Four minutes from time, Rachael Nachula added the sixth to complete the hammering.

(Mwebantu, Wednesday, 29th November, 2023)