The Zambia National Team, the Chipolopolo Boys have been locked out of the ongoing TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament 2024.
This follows a disappointing 3-1 loss at the hands of Morocco at the Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi Kenya.
The loss means Chipolopolo have suffered three straight losses in the group stage making unwanted history as prior to this tournament they had never lost a single group stage game.
Morocco came out all guns blazing from the onset with attack after attack. Francis Mwansa was called into action early on and made some fantastic saves.
Dominic Chanda had to make a goal line clearance to keep the scores level with Morocco dominating play for the entire first half with Zambia having limited chances on the ball.
With the match headed to the break goalless, Morocco finally broke the deadlock as Mohamed Hrimat blasted a shot into the roof of the net from close range, 1-0.
In the second stanza, Morocco picked up where they left off but Zambia started coming back into the match.
Shortly after the hour mark Zambia thought they had leveled matters when Happy Nsiku rose highest to head in a Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba throw in but the goal was ruled out for a foul in the lead to the goal.
Two minutes later Morocco doubled the lead as Ousama Lamloui put a powerful header past Francis Mwansa.
Kabaso Chongo pulled one back three minutes later heading in from close range off a Happy Nsiku assist.
Zambia started pushing for an equalizer with the match becoming something of an end to end encounter.
Substitute Sabir Bougrine put the final nail in the coffin for Chipolopolo as he pounced on a loose ball in the earlier after Francis Mwansaās save went into his path and he made no mistake with a calm finish, 3-1 the match finished.
Zambia has been booted out of the Competition but will play a dead rubber match on Sunday against group leaders Kenya on Sunday to end their campaign.
FULL TIME
Morocco 3-1 Zambia
(Mohammed Hrimat 45+2 3ā, 66ā Ousama Lamloui, Sabir Bougrine ā90+4| Kabaso Chongo 69ā )
We have learn something and we need to improve.
Ati ‘Morocco came out guns blazing’. I thought it was Zambia who are the bullets and it was Zambia who needed to win desperately. But as usual the players picked are not going to be blazing guns but defending and doing a poor job of defending. I don’t understand why our defenders don’t attack the ball but wait for players to cross when you have a chance to smother, divert or even pluck ball away from the player before it is delivered into danger areas increasing chances for opportunities for opposition scoring.
Also why do three players run onto towards one attacker. When one defender can close in on attacker the other monitors space and others mark their man especially in our danger areas. I have seen this happen over and over.
Bottom line the U20 team should have gone to CHAN because you can see how smart Happy Nsiku is. The U20 that was at AFCON this year should have represented Zambia with a view towards the Olympics or being fused into senior team.
There was no reason to take Kabaso Chongo, Larry Bwalya, Kampamba, Kanguluma etc… and the usual suspects. Only Benedict Chanda should have gone from the the tried and tested group of players who have now failed at Cosafa and Chan.
Reasons Zambia had been booted out.
1. luck of international games at club level. Zambian players lucks this experience, all teams gets eliminated at initial stages
2. poor infrastructure. we still have the same stadia since Independence and nothing has been done to improve them
3. we have players and not footballers, something is lucking in them.
4. luck of competition at club level. ever since kamanga reduced the number of foreign quotet a team should have on the field, Zambian clubs started failing to progress in caf games
5. luck of proper financial investments into local teams
6. No friendly matches prior to the tournament.