Sports Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Young Warriors’ dreams of competing in the 2024 CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations were shattered after losing to Zambia in a penalty shootout at the COSAFA qualifier in Mozambique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coach Simon Marange praised his team’s fighting spirit despite the defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am proud of the boys\u2026For myself as a Zimbabwean, and not just as a coach, I think I am proud of these young men and everyone else should be too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zambia dominated the first half, scoring two early goals through Mumba Mwila and David Simukonda. However, Zimbabwe fought back in the second half with Prince Ndlovu scoring a brace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We made a box in the midfield to match the overload that they had, and I think we managed to create chances to come back into the game,” Marange explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The match ended 2-2 after regular time, leading to a penalty shootout. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe missed their first kick in sudden death, handing Zambia the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zambia’s coach Boyd Mulwanda credited his players’ resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The boys put up a very good fight\u2026It wasn’t an easy game for us, but the good part is that we managed to come out victorious.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zambia and South Africa will meet in the final and represent the COSAFA region at the AFCON, which serves as the qualifying platform for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Chile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marange reflected,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think it was a very difficult game against a very strong Zambia side\u2026They completely dominated the first half.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zim GBC News\u00a92024<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sports Reporter The Young Warriors’ dreams of competing in the 2024 CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations were shattered after losing to Zambia in a penalty shootout at the COSAFA… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4932,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions\/4932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}