One of Uganda’s opponents at the fourth edition of the African Nation Championship, Zambia are feeling the pressure of putting up a a good show at the January 17 to Febuary 7 finals in Rwanda.
This is after the country’s U23 side failed to win a single match at the CAF U23 games going on in Senegal.
Zambia lost all their group matches, 2-1 to Tunisia, 3-2 to South Africa and 1-0 to Senegal.
Seven of the players with the junior side in Senegal are starters on CHAN bound side, something that has put Chipolopolo head coach, George Lwandamina in a state of bother.
We will try not to embarrass the Zambian populace when we go to the CHAN tournament. We cannot just fall we shall raise and move forward.
Lwandamina, who was in Dakar with Fighton Simukonda’s team as a technical adviser added;
Failure can’t be taken to be a yardstick for every tournament which comes. Yes, we failed but we can’t crucify every Jim and Jack that played in the tournament.
A senior member of the Chipolopolo, Nathan Sinkala while speaking to www.supersport.com urged the Zambia U-23 players that will be selected for 2016 CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) duty to redeem themselves in Rwanda.
The performance in Senegal is just a wake-up call for them to remain focused and work extra hard. CHAN is coming soon and they need to redeem themselves. A good outing for them will be good for Chipolopolo because most of the players are coming from the local team.
Zambia will face Zimbabwe in a Group D opener on January 19 before playing Uganda on the 23rd and Mali on January 27.
The January’s outing will be Zambia’s second appearance at the CHAN since the inaugural tournament in 2009 hosted by Cote d’Ivoire where the team finished third under then coach Herve Renard.
2016 CHAN Groups:
Group A – Rwanda, Gabon, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire
Group B – DR Congo, Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia
Group C – Tunisia, Nigeria Niger, Guinea
Group D – Zimbabwe, Mali, Uganda, Zambia
