Zambia cruised to the Girls’ Under-17 football crown at the Region 5 Youth Games Maseru 2020 with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Botswana in the final at the Setsoto Stadium on Monday.

Zambia finish the competition unbeaten in their three matches and conceding only a goal as they emphasised their quality and lived up to their billing as the pre-tournament favourites.

They are also the first side from the COSAFA region to claim the trophy in this age-group, after Uganda won the inaugural Southern African championship in 2019 and Tanzania claimed the victory last year.

Zambia were deserved winners, with Jessy Zulu and Lucy Kajiya grabbing first half goals, and skipper Pumulo Lubasi and Gracious Tailoshi adding two more in the second period. The strike from Tailoshi was one to remember as she thundered in a superb free-kick from a difficult angle.

The excellent Lubasi was named as Player of the Tournament, which comes with an incredible opportunity of spending a week in Spain as a guest of LaLiga Santander, where she will take in the sights and sounds of one of the world’s great footballing nations, train with an academy and hopefully take in a LaLiga match.

The same opportunity will be afforded to the best player in the Boys’ competition that concludes on Tuesday.

Kajiya claimed the Golden Boot for her three goals that saw her as the leading scorer, while Zambia goalkeeper Chitete Munsaka takes home the Golden Glove.

Soka25east.com