U-17 World Cup Recap: Zambia and Egypt continue strong starts

Zambia secured qualification to the knockout stage of the 2025 U-17 World Cup on Friday with a dominant victory over Honduras while Egypt remained top of their group.

Five different goal scorers was the headline for another excellent performance as the Young Chipolopolo cruised to a second victory after previously overcoming Indonesia in their Group H opener. The result was never in doubt for the African side, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Honduras responded close to halftime.

Kelvin Mulenga opened the scoring inside five minutes with a header from Jonathan Kalimina’s cross, the first of two assists for the fullback.

Felix Phiri and James Sibeene added more goals to Zambia’s advantage before the Honduran response. The Central American side pulled another goal back early in the second half but any hopes of a comeback were soon extinguished by Billy Daka’s towering header in the 72nd minute after an initial shot was tipped high into the air.

The Young Chipolopolo have second place well secure and will look to win the group when they face favorites Brazil on Monday, where they need a victory to jump past the South American giants.

Elsewhere on Friday, Egypt remain at the top of Group E after a 1-1 draw against Venezuela. Hamza Abdelkarim cancelled out a first half opener from the Venezuelan team and held on for a point in the final half hour after Mohamed Hamad was issued a red card.

Egypt will now prepare for a massive test against England, where the Young Pharaohs will look to at least avoid a lopsided defeat that could potentially threaten qualification to the Round of 16. The match will take place on Monday.

Finally, Ivory Coast suffered another defeat in Group F by falling 0-1 to Mexico. Despite a fierce battle that saw the West African side produce over twenty shot attempts, a second half goal condemned Les Elephanteaux to a devastating loss that leaves their hopes of advancement on life support. They will now need to defeat South Korea by a substantial margin on Monday due to Friday’s defeat along with a decisive 1-4 defeat to Switzerland in the opening match.