Chipolopolo Boys coach Aljosa Asanovic has said he was happy with the altitude and energy of his players on Friday night.
Speaking in a post match interview following Zambia’s 3-1 defeat to Iraq in a friendly match played at Al Madina Stadium in Baghdad, the Croat said his charges did his best.
“Some of the players it was the first time to see the ground with 40, 000 people [official capacity of 25, 341]. We are working hard, we know what we want,” he said
From the starting line up, only four players had 8 caps or more.
Skipper Benedict Chepeshi was the most experienced in the side having made his debut in 2015.
Chepeshi was followed by Spencer Sautu and Dominic Chanda.
Although Solomon Sakala has been ever present in the national team in the last 2 years, is a third choice to Chanda and Tandi Mwape.
Midfielder Prince Mumba earned his sixth cap while Albert Kangwanda and goalkeeper Charles Kalumba were playing their third friendly match.
Midfielder cum defender Miguel Chaiwa, Joshua ‘Budo’ Mutale and striker Derick Bulaya were debutants.
“The energy I saw today was very good. This is a school for my boys we need more games, we need to find more opponents.”
“After the result of 3-1, no one is happy especially me and my players. What I said after the game, I told my players that they have given 100%.
“They did their best, but we conceded a goal in 10 minutes which is a penalty which does not exist but anyway it is not an excuse,” he said.
“You know after that we conceded another goal through a set piece. From that we scored a goal to make it 2-1 and we went to second half.
After a lucklustre first half, Zambia improved in the second half after Asanovic added experience to the team.
Striker Alex Ng’onga, Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba and Patrick Gondwe were introduced at half time.
Later on Harrison Chisala, part of the Zambia Under-20 AFCON winning side was also introduced later on.
“We changed the formation a bit and introduced new players, we controlled the game, but we were not dangerous.”
