Olympic dreams on the line as Black Queens take on Zambia in Ndola

Ghana’s Black Queens will face a tough challenge as they take on Zambia in the second leg of their Olympic qualifier on Wednesday at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.

The Copper Queens won the first leg 1-0 at the Accra Sports Stadium, leaving the Black Queens with a mountain to climb if they want to qualify for the next round.

Despite the odds, the Black Queens are confident of turning things around and securing a place in the next stage of qualifying.

In a pre-match press conference, England-born midfielder Freda Avisi expressed the team’s determination to succeed.

“It will be amazing for the team to go for the Olympics because it’s a big opportunity to show the world that Ghana can play football and also put us on the map again,” she said.

Coach Nora Hauptle, who has suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in her Black Queens career, acknowledges that the team needs to be at their best to overcome Zambia.

“I hope it will be a good football game tomorrow evening for us. We also have some plans for tomorrow and it’s our approach to stabilizing the game, we need to score and we are aware of that and we will see tomorrow on the pitch what our plans are,” she said.

The statistics leading up to the game make for interesting reading.

This will be the third meeting between the two teams, with Zambia winning both previous encounters and scoring four goals against Ghana’s none.

Ghana have also struggled to find the net recently, failing to score in consecutive games (Namibia 1-0 Ghana and Ghana 0-1 Zambia) for the first time since April 2022. Before these games, they had scored 34 goals in 10 games.

However, Zambia has been on a roll, having not lost a game since their 5-0 defeat to Spain in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Racheal Kundananji has been a thorn in Ghana’s side, scoring all four goals that the Black Queens have conceded against Zambia in their last two meetings.

As the two teams prepare to face off, fans from both countries will be eagerly awaiting the outcome.

For Ghana, qualification to the final round of qualifiers would be a significant achievement, and the team will need to put in a strong performance to make it happen.

Can the Black Queens overcome the odds and secure a vital victory? Fans will be watching anxiously to find out.