Head coach of Zambia’s National Women’s Football Team, Nora Hauptle, has delivered a damning assessment of her team’s performance in a heavy loss to Nigeria.
Zambia lost 5-0 to Nigeria in the quarterfinals of the 2024 CAF Women’s AFCON in Morocco sending one of the pre-tournament favourites out of the tournament in an embarrassing fashion.
Hauptle, who coached Ghana’s National Women’s Team until falling out with Ghana’s officials over contract issues before taking over as Zambia boss earlier this year, admitted that neither she nor her players performed against Nigeria.
“Very clear loss for us. Congratulations to Nigeria for the well-deserved victory. I think today we need to accept that Nigeria was better than us. Today none of us has been on top. Today none of our players has been top, neither me as coach. We have also seen that, physically, we have seen that they are not on the same level. We need to accept” Hauptle said in a post-game presser.
Record AFCON winners Nigeria will take on the winner of the South Africa-Senegal game that takes place on Saturday, July 19 at 19:00 GMT.
Comfortable win for the hostesses! ✅#TotalEnergiesWAFCON2024 pic.twitter.com/fVM0MuA580
— CAF Women’s Football (@CAFwomen) July 18, 2025
In a related development, host nation Morocco beat Mali 3-1 in the quarterfinals to setup a semifinal game against the winner of Ghana’s tie against Algeria.
