Copper Queens qualify for 2024 Paris Olympics, defeat Morocco 2-0

The Copper Queens have qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This was after recording an impressive 2-0 win over the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco in the early hours of Wednesday at the Prince Moulay EL Hassan stadium.

Zambia was in desperate need of a win via a 2 goal cushion, after losing 2-1 in the first leg of the match played at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola on Friday.

The Zambia women’s football team began the match on the front foot by applying pressure on Morocco.

The pressure eventually paid off when captain Barbra Banda opened the scoring in the 38th minute.

The world’s second most expensive player impressively eluded her marker before rounding off the goalie Khadija to make the score 1-0.

In the second stanza, Morocco came back with intent to salvage the match.

But the Zambian goalie, Ng’ambo Musole, helped weather storm with a string of saves to deny the North Africans.

With the match evenly poised at 2-2, extra time was the next option remaining to break the deadlock.

The skipper, Banda was at the centre of the action once again when she won a penalty for the Copper Queens and stepped up to score from 12 yards to make it 2-nil in the match and 3-2 on aggregate.

Zambia held on to a famous win to qualify to the Olympics for the second time running.

Earlier Nigeria beat South Africa 1-0 on aggregate to qualify for the games after a 16 year wait.

The Women’s Olympic Football Tournament will run from 24 July – 10 August.

Zambia will be in group B alongside United States of America, Australia and Germany.

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