Bruce Mwape, coach of the Copper Queens of Zambia, has warned his side there are no pushovers as they prepare to face the Black Queens of Ghana in the first leg of the qualifying round of the 2024 Olympics.
The Copper Queens have had good experience in recent years at the Olympics and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and they do have in their team the world’s most expensive female footballer, Rachel Kundananji, who scored a hat-trick against Ghana in a pre-AWCON friendly five years ago.
Zambia will be facing a free-scoring Black Queens side with the likes of Doris Boaduwaa and captain Portia Boakye. Mwape reveals his side will be cautious in how they approach the game on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, at the Accra Sports Stadium.
“We will play cautiously because it won’t be an easy game. They will have home support but that won’t discourage our players. We have gathered experience of late and it will help us,” he said.
“The team we have called majority have played in the Olympics and World Cup, which will help us as we look to get the better of Ghana.”
“We have 30 players in camp; we started the camp on Tuesday and started training on Wednesday. No injuries so far it has gone well.”
“Black Queens, we played them here at Nkoloma some four years ago; they gave us a tough time, though we managed to win through a Kundananji (Rachel) hat-trick.”
“It won’t be easy because we have been playing in these big competitions, and they have all seen. They are preparing for us, I am sure, because they know we are not pushovers.”
