Zambia National team coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic declares his troops ready for the back to back Africa Cup qualifiers against Botswana next month.
The Zambia national soccer team boss was speaking after Zambia beat the Walia Ibex of Ethiopia in two friendly matches 3-2 and 3-1.
Micho believes the second match was better than the first match. The Serbian gaffer was happy with the way the first eleven in the 3-1 win over Ethiopia on Sunday played.
“First of all we had perfect first half after having problems in the first match, we had arrived late test our selves against the weather as well as the opponents in our first game, then we had two days to regroup, recover, to adapt and acclimatize and to bring ourselves in a position to be ready for this game. The first 11 starters have shown the game model of the Zambian game how its suppose to look like, hard on defense, creative build-up thunder strikes from counters attacking from all angles scoring wonderful goals missing maybe two more one disallowed one hitting the bar which was supposed to be a goal, display of attacking football, How we are supposed to play,” he said.
“At half time we are telling the players listen now we are not playing against opponents but we are playing against ourselves, against self-satisfaction against the fact that we are leading 3-0 and when we are 3-0 usually our players like to relax they like to be in a mode that is not 100% and in that regard we made 5 changes those five changes came in, We wanted to test them later on four more all together 9 players came in a reason for them to come in was very simple we can not go back home and judge who will stay with the national team and who will be dropped if we do not see them in action.”
“We have given the chance some players took the chance and some did not, but I want to give credit to the group that came here they have worked very hard they have given their very best. Every player has been seen in action and now it’s time as trying testing and experimenting there are going to play the league matches and will be ready for the AFCON qualifier against Botswana. We now have 5 matches behind us, Against Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, and two matches against Ethiopia. In the 5 matches and three matches in the league this is 8 matches and with 8 matches any single player is supposed to be in the top and competitive form so that we professional we are alining We are setting ourselves and we are ready to fire on all cylinders, We will look to analyze what has been good to keep up and upgrade and what has been wrong to correct we look at what’s ahead of us to makes new steps towards developing our team, developing our game and improving our national team to be the pride of Zambia,” he added.
Zambia host Botswana on November 12 at National Heroes Stadium before traveling to Gaborone four days later to conclude the doubleheader.
