Chipolopolo stand-in coach Moses Sichone has said the team will be in search of a win in Monday night’s international friendly match against the Eagles of Mali at the Stade du 26 Mars in Bamako.
Zambia lost 1-0 in the first friendly match on Friday last week against Mali where both countries are utilizing the international window to prepare for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers which were postponed tp March next year.
The former Zambian defender is in charge of the team in the absence of now former head coach Aljosa Asanovic. who resigned from his position nine months after being appointed has said he was happy with how the Chipolopolo played and will look forward to an even better performance tonight.
“I think the first game we saw how intense the match was. I must confess, Mali has a strong team but we played according to our instructions,” Sichone said.
“I am happy over the performance, the boys showed that we can beat Mali, this is what we are looking forward to in tomorrow’s [tonight] game.”
Going into tonight’s match, Zambia will be without Russian-based 2012 AFCON-winning striker Evans Kangwa who sustained an injury in Friday’s match.
Sichone said Kangwa’s injury is unfortunate because he is one of the most experienced players in the squad but believes it’s also an opportunity for other players to prove themselves and earn a place in the starting eleven.
“Evans is one of the experienced players we have in the team it is unfortunate that he is injured, that is why we have other players who also want to prove that can they replace him. We intend to give other guys a chance to prove a point and replace Evans.”
Kangwa’s injury further depletes Sichone’s options going into tonight’s match following the unavailability of Premier League duo of Patson Daka and Enock Mwepu due to health concerns, with Joshua Mutale and Toasta Nsabata also recovering from knocks.
Tanzania-based attacking midfielder Cletus Chama was also excused from camp due to a family commitment.
Sichone has indicated that the technical bench has worked on the areas of concern that were noted from Friday’s 1-nil defeat and expects the team to be able to beat Mali.
“We came here to prepare and we also want to win, to beat Mali. If we look at the game we played on Friday, we did well and I was able to see the mistakes that we made. We aided Mali to score in the match,” he concluded.
Zambia is in Bamako for two international friendly matches against Mali who won the first match 1-0 via a 7th minute El Bilal Toure goal to secure victory for the Eagles for the first time against the Chipolopolo.
