Shepolopolo Zambia’s 2022 Women’s AFCON campaign edges closer and on Thursday they shifted camp to their Group B base in Casablanca.
Bruce Mwape’s side moved to Casablanca after earlier setting-up a pre-tournament camp in Marrakech on June 16.
Zambia were also one of the first teams to arrive in Morocco ahead of the WAFCON that will run from July 2-23.
Shepolopolo ended that camp with three friendly games’ drawing 1-1 with Morocco in Rabat on June 18, then beating local club FC Phoenix Marrakech 6-0 on June 25 and losing 5-0 to Uganda on Tuesday in their final warm-up.
“The friendlies were quite OK and the team has picked the negatives and positives but I feel we are still working on the negatives,” defender Margaret Belemu said.
“Like on the game against Uganda, we did not play well, we lost coordination and I think we are still working on team discipline.
“But all-in-all, we are ready for the tournament.”
Shepolopolo face Cameroon in their opening Group B match in what will be a grudge showdown after Zambia beat the Indomitable Lionesses to 2020 Olympic Games qualification on away goals rule following 2-1 home final leg win to advance a 4-4 aggregate result.
They will then face Tunisia on July 6 and Togo on July 9.
The top two sides advance to the quarterfinals while semifinal qualification will see Zambia qualify for the Australia/New Zealand 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
But a quarterfinal spot will still see Zambia stay on at WAFCON to play a repechage round where the two winners will head to New Zealand and Australia to play a 10-team intercontinental playoff.
The top three teams from the playoffs will complete next July’s 32-team line-up at the same co-host venues.
Margaret Belemu: “we are still working on the negatives…still working on team discipline”! But this is two days before your first competitive game! So you are not giving us much hope ahead of kick off.
LT kingly note there’s NO word expressed as Shepolopolo in any language. I kindly suggest Chipolopolo Ladies be used instead ,