Zambia national team coach Avram Grant has blamed individual mistakes for the team’s second loss at the ongoing 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) but remains confident the side is improving despite back-to-back defeats.

After a 2-0 defeat to the Democratic Republic of Congo in their opening game, Zambia again fell to a 2-1 loss against Angola after surrendering a late lead. Dominic Chanda put Zambia ahead in the 73rd minute, but substitute Kaporal struck twice in the final 17 minutes, capitalizing on a defensive error to secure the win for Angola.

The defeat leaves Zambia bottom of Group A with zero points, needing victories over Morocco and Kenya while hoping Angola and DR Congo play to a draw to advance. Angola moves into second with four points, behind leaders Kenya on seven, while DR Congo and Morocco have three each.

“I think this game we played much better than the first game,” Grant told a post-match press conference. “We created six clear chances, as I saw. We scored one. Then we were winning one-nil and a few individual mistakes cost us, but the players tried their best today. This is football when you miss so many chances.”

Grant stressed that the CHAN team is new and improving with every match, expressing confidence they will perform better on Thursday against Morocco, who suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to ten-man Kenya.

“I think our performance in the first game was not good. Our performance in this game was good. We are improving every game. This is a new team. It’s a CHAN team. It’s our second game,” Grant emphasized. “I think it was much better than the first game. I think it will be better than the third game. But we lost today even when we were winning one-nil. I think the chances that we missed cost us.”

READ MORE: Shambolic Zambia Blunders Again as Angola Fight Back to Seal 2-1 Win