Zambia will seek redemption today at 14hrs against Malawi at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe, but coach Patrick Mabedi wants a win over the Chipolopolo boys to ease fan pressure.
Mabedi and his players are under pressure to deliver against Zambia after suffering a 4-0 defeat to Kenya on Saturday in front of over 15,000 fans in their first match of the four-nation tournament.
The Flames trainer stated that even though it is a friendly match, they do not want to lose tomorrow because Malawians will not accept that excuse.
“We owe Malawians a lot; losing 0-4 to Kenya was a disappointing result. Malawi has a good record when it comes to defending…… But against Kenya, we made school mistakes, hence conceding those goals.
“What Malawians are waiting for tomorrow is a win, nothing else, and we will try to deliver that,” he said.
Malawi to make changes
Mabedi believes that the changes he made against Kenya contributed to the defeat. He stated that when they face Zambia, he will try to bring back other players in order to win the match.
“We have three centre-backs; if anything happens to them, it means we are in trouble. That is why we brought some new faces to see their performance and we saw some positives, though we made mistakes.
“Tomorrow (Today) we have to bounce back; there is no excuse and it is not nice to lose at home. We need to make our fans happy,” he added.
Zambia also lost 6-5 to Zimbabwe on penalties after drawing 2-2 in regulation but their coach, Avram Grant, said he is prioritising trying new players.
“This is the last time that we can try things that we didn’t do before—try new players and see if they are good for our team,” he said. “I was very pleased with our first game; we were leading 2-nil, and we played well. We made two mistakes, and it cost us.”
READ MORE: Grant wants to try new players against Malawi, Sunzu ruled out
