Zambia forward Rachael Kundananji believes Saturday's crucial Women's Africa Cup of Nations Group C encounter against Nigeria's Super Falcons will be decisive for both teams' hopes of progressing in the tournament, Nigeriasoccernet.com reports.
The defending champions suffered a surprise 3-2 defeat to tournament debutants Malawi in their opening match, while Zambia announced themselves as title contenders with a commanding 6-0 victory over Egypt.
With qualification to the knockout stage hanging in the balance, Kundananji acknowledged the significance of the fixture and expressed confidence in her team's readiness.
"The morale is high, the team is ready," she said during Friday's pre-match press conference.
"We understand it's not an easy task. It's the game that will determine both teams' fate. It's the game that will make everything easy or tough. It won't be an easy game, and we are just looking forward to doing our best."
Zambia head coach Nora Häuptle also made it clear that her side would not settle for a draw, insisting the Copper Queens will approach the contest with the intention of claiming all three points.
"We never play for a draw, it's not in our nature. We always chase for the lead in games. In the last edition we lost against Nigeria in the quarter-finals, we learnt a lot from that game, and against Egypt we showed our flexibility so we can surprise Nigeria," Häuptle said.
The Swiss tactician credited her team's recent development to a series of high-profile international friendlies played during the FIFA Series, where Zambia tested themselves against some of the world's top-ranked nations.
"We have grown as a team. This year we played in the FIFA Series where we faced top-20 teams in the world to learn about high-level games. The lessons from those matches have made us stronger and given me a lot of confidence in this team," she added.
Saturday's encounter will be the fifth WAFCON meeting between Nigeria and Zambia. The Super Falcons have won three of the previous four meetings, including emphatic 6-0 and 4-0 group-stage victories in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
Zambia recorded their first-ever WAFCON victory over Nigeria with a 1-0 win in the third-place playoff at the 2022 tournament before the Super Falcons responded emphatically with a 5-0 quarter-final triumph en route to lifting the 2024 continental title.