Nora Hauptle is proud of the progress she has made so far with the Black Queens of Ghana despite her team suffering elimination from the 2024 Paris Olympics race in the qualifiers following their 4-3 aggregate loss to Zambia’s Copper Queens on Wednesday.

The Swiss, who went ten matches unbeaten before losing to Namibia and Zambia, praised her team after their 3-3 draw with the Copper Queens on Wednesday in Ndola in the Olympic qualifiers.

“My team is brave; my team is playing football; my team is fighting; I cannot blame them,” Hauptle stated after getting eliminated from the Olympic qualifiers. “Sometimes it’s hard; we did everything and then conceded a free kick and a red card in the last minute, such things happen; of course, we would have loved to take it. All in all, it was disappointing for us, but kudos to Zambia.”

She added: “As I told you in the pre-press conference, I watched all 21 games for Zambia last year. I know every player inside and out, and we did a very good analysis with our staff, like we always do.

“Zambia has fantastic individual players. They can make a difference at a very high level in transitional moments. [Barbra] Banda, [Racheal] Kundananji, and also in the midfield, [Grace] Chanda who was missing.”

Hauptle will now focus on the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. The tournament will be staged in Morocco this year on yet-to-be-announced dates.