Zambia U23 national team Midfield ace Enock Mwepu believes the penalty awarded to Congo Brazzaville in Sundays Egypt U23 AFCON qualifier the second leg was not a correct call.
The Redbull Salzburg midfielder says the team was expecting such frustrations heading into the match. Mwepu believes the team gave their all on the day and used a lot of courage to force a draw away in unfavorable conditions.
“It was a challenge for us because that was not a penalty. We kept the belief knowing that every Zambian was there praying for us. We believed that this team cannot beat us,” he told FAZ Media.
“We just raised the courage within ourselves that we just have to do this. We expected frustrations, we expected that they would treat us that way. We gave it everything and goals came in. it was a plus to us,” he added.
Mwepu scored a brace on the day with Patson Daka notching up a goal but the lanky midfielder says he did not expect to score on the day but he is happy to have put his name on the score sheet.
“Unbelievable for me, it is something that I did not even expect. I did not expect that I would score. In football it is always a good thing to score,” he said.
“These things are special, it means everything to me, I am so happy and excited about my teammates. They gave everything up to the end. I am excited about the goals, I am praying that I will keep scoring for this team knowing that the best is yet to come,” he added.
Mwepu also went on to urge to continue supporting the team.
“Our word for the supporters is to keep believing that we shall make the nation proud. Of course we have done it before and played games that have made them proud,” he said.
Zambia and hosts Egypt will be joined by six other qualified nations when the qualifying tournament for the U23 Africa Cup of Nations draws to its end this,
The Top 3 teams at the U23 Afcon automatically qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Qualified teams: Egypt (host), Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia
The best 8 under23 teams in Africa to battle for 3 Olympic slots, mouth watering encounters. Looking forward to the draws
5 teams from West Africa, 1 North, 2 from South
If that penalty wss not genuine what has faz done about it, with kamanga?
FAZ will just die inside as usual, but that decision was not good for African football.
Cameroon is the only Central African nation after Congo’s demise by Zambia
I wonder why the media keep saying Cameroon is in West Africa instead of Central Africa. Any way these teams are all very strong. Each of the two Groups will be Groups of Death.
The Ref almost cost us this game. We have to say it. That was a free gift of a penalty. It could have easily swang the game the other way. It was advantage Congo B when the got the penalty but the just found a resolute young Zambian team.
African Refs the less i say the better.