South Africa will play Zambia in their final match of the group stage of the continuing COSAFA Cup this Wednesday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth with kickoff at 16:00.
Both sides have matches on Tuesday before facing off on Wednesday with South Africa taking on Lesotho first before Zambia face Botswana.
South Africa who are unbeaten in this tournament in the group stage are hosting the entire competition for the fourth time in the last five years and are determined to surpass their fifth-placed finishes in the last three COSAFA Cup competitions. The last time they lifted the cup was back in 2016 but Bafana Bafana will be looking to change things this time around which is evident in their first two matches of the tournament. They won with a 1-0 in their first two fixtures against Botswana and Eswatini.
Bafana Bafana will come into the match on top Group B standings and would be advancing to the final four on Friday if they win their match today against Lesotho.
Meanwhile Zambia’s chances of progressing to the semis suffered a heavy blow following their second loss of the tournament of 1-0 to Eswatini on Friday. They opened their campaign with a 2-1 loss to Lesotho and will be desperate for points in their remaining two matches.
Zambia are the defending champions of this tournament but things haven’t gone their way this year with high chances of not making out the group stage.
South Africa vs Zambia head to head
Both sides have eight matches between them since 2006 with Zambia being the better team with five victories while Bafana Bafana have won once, the remaining match ended in a draw. Here are the results from the previous encounters.
- South Africa 1-2 Zambia Oct 11, 2020
- Zambia 0-2 South Africa Mar 24, 2018
- South Africa 1-2 Zambia Jun 13, 2017
- South Africa 1-0 Zambia Jan 4, 2015
- South Africa 3-5 Zambia Jul 17, 2013
Home
- South Africa 1-0 Eswatini
- South Africa 1-0 Botswana
- South Africa 3-2 Uganda
- Sudan 2-0 South Africa
- South Africa 1-1 Ghana
Away
- Eswatini 1-0 Zambia
- Zambia 1-2 Lesotho
- Sudan 0-1 Zambia
- Benin 2-2 Zambia
- Senegal 3-1 Zambia
South Africa team news
We expect to see alterations in the squad since Bafana Bafana will be involved in a match before taking on Zambia 24 hours later.
Zambia team news
Same thing goes to Zambia with all their back four being in danger of missing Wednesday’s clash should they be booked again the Tuesday’s match against Botswana.
Prediction and odds
- Double chance
- South Africa win
- Goals under 2.5
