Zambia will face Lesotho in the final of the of the 2024 COSAFA Under-17 Girls Championship at UJ Soweto Stadium on Friday following their respective wins over Madagascar and Mozambique in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
Zambia put in another dominant performance as they defeated Madagascar 3-0 in the first semi-final.Hellen Banda opened the scoring as early as the 10th minute.
The side wasted several chances in front of goal with Grace Phiri coming close to doubling the lead one-on-one with the goalkeeper at the half-hour mark but was denied by Alda Fazitady.
However Phiri got on the score sheet two minutes later with her fourth goal of the tournament and gave Zambia a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Zambia continued where they left off in the second half but couldn’t penetrate the Malagasy defence. They got an opportunity to add a third goal in the 63rd minute through Phiri but she was denied by the keeper.
Madagascar also came close to pulling one back 10 minutes later through Volana Andrianarison but she could not beat the Zambia keeper.
With eight minute to go, captain fantastic Mercy Chipasula scored the third, her sixth goal of the tournament which took her to second position on the top goal scorer list, joint with teammate Masela Sekeseke.
Chipasula also earned her third Player of the Match award as Zambia booked their second successive final appearance.