In preparation for the 2023 World Cup, the Zambia women's team unexpectedly won 3-2 against Germany women's team. However, that match did not take away the class of the world's second-class team, nor did it suddenly elevate the class of the African representative coming for the first time to the World Cup.
The proof is that despite poor preparation, Germany entered the 2023 Women's World Cup finals with a 6-0 victory over Morocco - the biggest since the beginning of the tournament, while Zambia conceded a total of 10 goals after 2 matches in Group C.
After losing 0-5 in the opening match against Japan, there were not many hopes to keep a clean sheet for the Zambia women's team against Spain. Everyone is only interested in how many goals the European representative will score.
After playing for nearly 20 minutes in the 3-0 win over Costa Rica, the Alexia Putellas Golden Ball was sent onto the field by coach Jorge Vilda from the start. He also changed the formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3.
With a technical style of play, the Spanish women's team overwhelmed their opponents with small combinations, based on their highly individual skills. The ball went to the sidelines but rarely ended with powerful cross strokes, the way they put the ball in was also full of technique, or back and forth for the second line to finish.
And just 9 minutes later, the goal came to them, when Tereca Albelleira received the ball and fired a long-range shot into the right A-side. If it was a goal that showed strength and determination, then 5 minutes later, the combination ended with Putellas' soft press for Jenni Hermoso.
Leading by 2 goals, the Spanish women's team played well, solid enough to not give the opponent a chance to counterattack. That also happened in the first half of the second half, until the Reds accelerated with 2 consecutive goals in 2 minutes (69 and 70) by Alba Redondo and Hermoso.
In the 85th minute, Redondo scored the second goal with a skillful move in the penalty area. Despite taking time to wait for the referee to check VAR, the joy for Spain was that no goal was canceled due to an offside error, even if the referee had raised the flag before.
Winning 5-0, Spain took the lead in Group C (equal to Japan but with a better goal difference), and also officially joined the Asian representative to qualify for the round of 16.
The match between the two teams on July 31 will determine the second place to be able to choose the direct qualifying branch.
