Reporter Han Bing reported that after the 0-5 defeat to Brazil, the Chinese women's football team's second opponent was Zambia. Zambia's strength is very poor, they lost 3-10 to the Netherlands in their first game, creating the most painful defeat in the history of the team in international competitions, from the perspective of strength, the Chinese women's football team should not be a big problem, but need to brush out more goal differences, in addition, but also to guard against last year's Women's Super League Golden Boot Barbara Banda sneak attack, can play a "hat trick" on the dutch team ranked third in the world, Banda's state is very hot.
Zambia was the first country in Africa to carry out women's football, and the women's national football team was established in 1983, and the entire African women's football movement was almost blank at that time. Zambia is not only one of the best countries in Africa to develop women's football, but also received Umbro sponsorship in 2003, and coverage of the women's national football team is also common in the country's largest circulation "Daily Telegraph", "Zambia Times" and "The Post", and the exposure rate is not much worse than that of the men's national team.
Zambia women's football first competed in 1994, but the results were not ideal, and currently ranked only 104th in the world. The team has never been shortlisted for the Women's World Cup finals so far, the Olympic Games are also the first time to qualify, even in the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, 13 times the tournament has only qualified 3 times, except for 1995 to reach the quarterfinals, 2014 and 2018 are stopped in the group stage. This time to qualify for the Olympic Games, mainly because of the weakness of the elimination opponents, all the way to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya, the final relying on away goals to squeeze out cameroon, two consecutive women's World Cup powerhouses.
In addition, there are three foreign players, midfielder Nachura and striker Mbanga playing for Zaragoza in La Liga women's football league, while 21-year-old striker Barbara Banda plays at shanghai rural commercial bank in the Chinese Women's Super League.
Barbara Banda is only 1.66 meters tall and has previously played for Logroño in La Liga for two years, scoring 16 goals in 28 appearances. At the beginning of 2020, she joined the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank team, although the Women's Super League only started at the end of August last year due to the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, and the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank eventually finished third, but Banda won the Golden Boot with 17 goals in 12 games, and the number of goals scored was twice that of the Silver Boot Malawi foreign aid Temwa (9 goals).
At the Southern Africa Women's Championship at the end of last year, Banda agreed to score a hat-trick; at the end of November, he warmed up with Chile in Santiago and scored goals to help the team win. In 2021, Zambia originally arranged three warm-up matches, but only in April the match against South Africa was completed, and it was Banda who took the lead in opening the record for the team, but the team lost 1-3. Later, the warm-up matches against Kenya and the British women's football team were forced to be cancelled due to the epidemic, which seriously affected the preparation of the Zambian team.
In the Olympic African Qualifiers, Zambia attacked, mainly relying on 24-year-old midfielder Grace Chanda, who scored 2/3 of the team's goals (8 goals) to become the Golden Boot of the event, and in the first Olympic match against the Netherlands, she assisted Banda's second goal.
Zambia has a rare chance to play against the women's national team outside Africa. The opening match of the Olympic Games against The Netherlands, a European powerhouse, conceded three goals in the opening 15 minutes, but Barbara Banda immediately scored a comfort ball for Zambia. In the first half, Zambia conceded 6 goals in a row, as the lowest ranked team in the world among the 16 teams of the Olympic women's football team, the strength was completely unable to compete with the world's third-ranked Dutch team, and finally lost 3-10, but Banda scored two goals in a row before the end of the game, and completed a hat-trick on the Dutch women's football team, although this is related to the Dutch women's football team replacing the top scorer and the main center-back, but it is enough to prove her personal ability.
With Zambia's strength, the Chinese women's football team should not have much problem winning, but it is still difficult to brush up enough goals like the Dutch women's football team, and it is also necessary to beware of Barbara Banda, who is very familiar with the players on the Chinese women's football defense.
Fortunately, Jia Xiuquan had already noticed Banda, and after the results of the draw came out, he said that the Zambian striker must pay special attention.