AVRAM GRANT: Zambia Will Be Tough To Play Against at AFCON.
Chipolopolo Boys coach Avram Grant has said that Zambia will be tough to play against at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) despite being drawn in a difficult group with Morocco, Tanzania, and DR Congo.
Speaking to the media from the Chipolopolo base in Dubai, Grant said that Morocco is the best team in Africa, but Zambia is a good team as well and will be tough to beat.
“It’s a very tough draw but any draw is not so easy,” Grant said. “Morocco is the best team in Africa, they showed in the world cup, Congo DR is a very good team, Tanzania improving a lot, I saw them. So it’s tough to play against them but our target is it will be tough to play against us also.”
Zambia will face Morocco and Tanzania in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Grant said that drawing Morocco and Tanzania in both the AFCON and World Cup qualifiers is strange, but he is determined to get something from both games.
“It’s very very strange,” Grant said. “I don’t know what to say, this is what we get. We will try to do the best from it.”
Grant said that Zambia needs to prepare well for the AFCON, both on and off the pitch.
“We need to do a good preparation,” Grant said. “We need to arrange everything on the pitch and off the pitch. We need to learn on our mistakes. On the pitch there are lot of good things, off the pitch people are trying. But I think if we go to AFCON with good preparation it will be good, and preparation starts now.”
However, Grant said that Zambia will focus on building their own team rather than paying too much attention to their group opponents.
“What we try to do is to build our team of our own,” Grant said. “It’s not necessary to think about the opponent too much. And I think we are improving about this. I saw yesterday’s game, we played against the top team in Africa (Egypt), we created chances against them, we played well, and we showed that we have something to do. Even though we missed some key players (Zambia was missing the services of Italian-based winger Lameck Banda and Scottish-based defender Frankie Musonda due to injury), we still did well. With a little bit of luck, it could have been a different result. But it was a good test, and we showed that we can compete with any team.”
The AFCON tournament will kick off on January 13, 2023.