Chipolopolo players confident ahead of Mauritania clash

Zambia national team squad for the back-to-back Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers is now complete after the arrival of the last batch of foreign-based players.

Coach Beston Chambeshi has named a strong squad for the formality matches against Mauritania at home on Saturday and Tunisia away.

Tanzania-based Rally Bwalya says he is honored to be part of the squad and he is keen on helping the team to get a good result on Saturday at the National Heroes Stadium.

“It’s always a pleasure and a great honor to be back home and representing the nation. The time we played Equatorial Guinea the coach gave me a chance and I had to pay back his trust, but unfortunately we drew,” Bwalya told the ZamFoot Crew.

“We wanted to win but you know how football is. We look forward to playing Mauritania and getting a good result.”

Bwalya added:”We are looking on the long term. We need to bond so much for the coming games and these games will help us with that.”

South African-based goalkeeper Mwenya Cyril Chibwe believes it’s now time for the Chipolopolo Boys to start correcting their wrongs.

The Copper Bullets have failed to qualify to the continental showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations three times in a row, 2017, 2019, and 2021 editions respectively and are already out of contention for qualification to the 2022 World Cup.

“We love having fans back in the Stadium. We will keep on fighting when we are on the pitch. Their (the fans) coming encourages us to do better.”

“I think it’s our time to start fixing everything with the team. Going forward, nothing is a formality. It starts now,” the Baroka FC goalminder said.

Cyril Chibwe has also welcomed the return of fellow South Africa DSTV Premiership campaigner, Toaster Nsabata to the national team set up after a close to two years absence.

Nsabata was in goal in Blida as Zambia suffered a 5-0 humiliation at the hands of Algeria in a 2021 AFCON qualifier.

“The first camp I was with him (Toaster Nsabata). He is doing well in South Africa.  For him coming back is only fair enough.”

Chibwe added: “Competition is always good. Whosoever plays I have always been happy to support. A healthy competition is always good in football.”

Meanwhile, Skipper Lubambo Musonda believes these two games are very important because they will be used to build a team.

“They are two important games for us. We  are not taking them as games to fulfill a fixture. We are here to build a team and get to see that we create that will be able to compete in other tournaments,” Musonda said.

“We want to do better than we did when we played at home. Having more fans this time around will even be better. You can see from how everybody is working at their clubs scoring goals, assisting, and winning awards.”

“It’s great for the team that many of the players are working hard and giving their best for their clubs which will translate positively on the national team,” the Danish-based winger concluded.

Scotland-based Fashion Sakala on the other hand has called on fans to come in numbers and support the team as the team needs them now more than ever.

“This game we are playing on Saturday is very important for us. We are doing it for the country. We are going to make sure we get the result and give them the good feeling about the squad that we have now,” Sakala said.

“They (fans) have to come and support us and this is the most important for us players we need them, we need fans to push us even though we are out of contention.”

The Chipolopolo Boys will host Mauritania on Saturday at National Heroes Stadium,with kicking off time at 15:00 hours.

Tickets are on sale across Shoprite outlets via Computicket and are pegged at K30 (North and South wings), K50 (East Wing), K75 (West Wing), and K250 (VIP).