Zambia national team Chipolopolo is through to the 2017 COSAFA finals after beating Wednesday afternoon opponents Tanzania 4-2 at the Moruleng Stadium in Rustenburg.
A brace from Justin Shonga and goals by Brian Mwila and Jackson Chirwa earned the victory aganist a hard fighting Taifa Stars who scored their goals through Erasto Nyoni and Simon Msuva.
Tanzania started off cautiously but raided Chipolopolo goal mouth at the 15th minute and got their opening goal with Erasto Nyoni brilliant free kick that beat keeper Allan Chibwe for the opener.
Zambia seemed relaxed as the continued to push for the equalizer but were let down by their final passes.Katiba floated in a cross and it nearly bore fruits but Manula was lucky not to concede from a poor timing.
Just before half time Mwila finally broke the deadlock pushing the ball into the empty net from a close range to make it 1-1 at half time.
Just a minute after coming on Zambia doubled the lead when Shonga picked up the ball beating his marker to make it 2-1.
Tanzania nearly added the second after Mbode laid in the ball for Kapombe but the latter placed the short off target.
Taifa Stars conceded a penalty five minutes later when their defender Gadiel Kamagi was adjudged to have handled the ball in the 18-yard area.
Jackson Chirwa stepped up and conveted the penalty to make it 3-1 to Zambia.
Shonga slotted in his second 15minutes to the end from a neatly taken free kick aimed at the far corner past diving Aishi Manula.
Tanzania made use of their lone chance in the second stanza when Saimon Msuva made a good run before unleashing a powerful shot past exposed Chibwe.
Ramadhani effort in the closing minutes of the game went off the bar. Zambia now will wait the winner between Lesotho and Zimbabwe to know their opponents in the final set to be played on Sunday 9,July.
Zambia XI: Chibwe, Chama, Chungu, Mulenga, Shamujompa, Malama, Chirwa, Katiba, Shonga, Mwila, Chibwekwe
Tanzania XI: Manula, Kamagi, Banda, Mbonde, Mao, Maguri, Msuva, Ramadhani, Said, Kapombe, Nyoni
