Four Nations Tournament: South Africa wins gold medal

Bafana Bafana claimed the ultimate prize in Ndola after overcoming the hosts, Zambia, 2-0 in the final on Saturday, 25 March. South Africa booked a place in the final by narrowingly beating Angola 4-3 in penalty shootouts but after fielding a different team for the match, the visitors were fairly comfortable against Zambia. Bafana coach, Stuart Baxter was elated with his charges’ performance and will be keen to use this as a springboard to take South Africa back to glory days with the first stop being the AFCON 2019.

“This was indeed a fruitful exercise for the technical team as well as the players. We had two highly competitive opponents in a short space of time and did well in both games. We played two different teams because we wanted everyone to play, especially the kids and they really held their own in tough conditions,” - Stuart Baxter.

In a bronze medal match played on the same day, Angola beat Zimbabwe 4-2 on penalties after playing out to a 2-2 in which the Warriors of Zimbabwe gave up the lead twice as they did against Zambia.

Four Nations Tournament: Zambia book a date with Bafana Bafana in the final

The four Southern African titans are so competitive up to a point that both semi-finals had to be decided on penalty shoot-outs. On Wednesday, the hosts, Zambia had to come from behind twice to force a draw with neighbors Zimbabwe. Chipolopolo eventually overcame their long-standing rivals 5-4 on penalties to set up a meeting with South Africa who also beat Angola on penalties after a hard fought 1-1 draw.

The final matches will be on Saturday when Zimbabwe will face Angola for the bronze medal with the finale kicking off three hours later.

International break: Four nations tournament in the spotlight, Nigeria-Poland friendly sold out

All eyes on Zambia’s Levy Mwanawasa stadium from 22-25 March as Zimbabwe and Angola will battle for a place in the final against Zambia or South Africa in a mini-tournament pitting the Southern African top teams. The losing teams will have to play for a third-place finish. All coaches have picked relatively strong and youthful squads for the friendly tournament as they prepare for AFCON qualifiers in September.

Elsewhere, all the 42 000 matches for the match featuring Nigerian and Wroclaw in Poland, have been sold out. The two teams will clash on Friday, 23rd of March and the fans are expected to be in full voice cheering their world cup bound heroes.