The Egyptian women's national team suffered a heavy defeat against Zambia by a clean six goals in the first round of Group Three of the African Women's Cup of Nations held in Morocco.
The Egyptian women's national team is participating in the African Cup of Nations for the third time in history, and the first time in 10 years.
Zambia's goals were scored by Rachel Nachula with one goal, and Immers Ferry with one goal, while Barbara Banda scored 4 goals.
Rachel Nachula began her sports career as a runner at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 400-meter race, and succeeded in qualifying for the semi-final round.
After ending her running career, Rachel Nachula switched to playing football and represented Zambia at the 2024 Olympics with the Zambian women's national football team.
As for Barbara Banda, who plays in the American league, she ranked second in the list of top scorers at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Banda holds with the Zambian national team the record for the most hat-tricks in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The group includes Nigeria, the historical champion of the tournament with 10 titles, and Malawi, who will face each other shortly.
The Egyptian team will meet Malawi in the second round next Saturday, August 1.
Egypt's formation
Egypt coach Mohamed Kamal chose to start with the following formation:
Maha Al-Damardash - Nora Khaled - Soraya Ashraf - Nadine Ghazi - Amira Mohamed - Christina Salama - Habiba Essam - Yasmine Abdelaziz - Dana Karim - Mahira Ali - Leila Idris
Match details
The match started with pressure from the Zambian team, but Egypt goalkeeper Maha Al-Damardash shone.
Maha fell in the 10th minute after a collision with Barbara Banda, the Zambian national team star.
The Zambian team was awarded a penalty in the 23rd minute after Egyptian defender Amira Mohamed pulled Barbara's shirt inside the penalty area.
Rachel Nachula succeeded in scoring the first goal for Zambia in the 25th minute.
After that, Egyptian player Soraya Ibrahim came out crying due to injury, to be replaced by Lia Khairy.
The first half of the match ended with the Zambian women leading by a clean goal.
With the start of the second half, Egyptian coach Mohamed Kamal introduced Mena Tarek and Sara Essam.
The referee resorted to video technology in the 58th minute to confirm a penalty due to a handball against Egyptian player Amira Mohamed, and it was indeed awarded as the second penalty of the match, which Barbara Banda scored into Egypt's net.
Barbara Banda added the third goal in the 62nd minute with a header into the net.
After that, Mohamed Kamal made a substitution, bringing on Iman Qasim instead of Christina Salama.
The Egyptian women did not threaten Zambia's goal, whose players began pressing to increase the goal difference.
Indeed, in the final minutes Barbara Banda succeeded in scoring two goals and assisting another.
In the 87th minute Banda scored, before passing in the 90+3 minute to her teammate Immers Ferry who shot powerfully into the net.
In the sixth minute of stoppage time, Banda added the sixth goal, her fourth personally, with a shot to the right of Egypt goalkeeper Maha, raising the score to 6-0.
