Zambia can still overtake Zimbabwe and Botswana in Afcon qualifiers – Faz’s Kamanga

Football Association of Zambia (Faz) President Andrew Kamanga remains optimistic they will qualify for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations.

Zambia failed to pick maximum points against Botswana in a November double-header despite the fact they played five friendly matches before the qualifier.

Kamanga, however, draws his optimism from the fact that Zambia, at the bottom of Group J, are separated with just two points from Zimbabwe who are second.

“A lot has been said about the Botswana engagement; therefore, I will only focus on the road ahead, suffice to say the failure to win in Francistown was very disappointing,” Kamanga said as was quoted by Faz's Facebook page.

“We had invested a lot of effort in preparations for these games and government through the Ministry of Sports also gave the team all the support. The Minister of Sports Emmanuel Mulenga travelled with the team and was also available for the home game at National Heroes Stadium to cheer the lads.

“We hope that we can rebound in the remaining fixtures at home to Algeria and away to Zimbabwe in March next year. For the record, Algeria top the group on 10 points while Zimbabwe are second with five points with Botswana third on four points.

“We sit at the bottom on three points. We are comforted by the gap between us and the two teams sitting above us. It is something that we can overcome if we stick to a tight plan.”

The official believes the upcoming African Nations Championship will serve to prepare Chipolopolo for the decisive two qualifiers next year.

“On our part, we believe that we will eventually pull through to be among the two teams that will qualify from our group,” he added.

“We will wait for the technical bench to give us the programme that they believe will help them meet our expectations. In between, Chipolopolo will participate at the 2021 Chan in Cameroon that kicks off in January.

“The Chan will be a good platform for our team to prepare for the final round of Afcon qualifiers. We expect that the players will rise to the occasion and die a little for their country.

“Ultimately everything we do as administrators will only count for something if the work on the pitch reciprocates all these efforts.”

In the recent international week, Zambia won their first game 2-1 before they lost the second tie by a 1-0 margin to their southern neighbours, the Zebras.