By Mutale Kambatizee
The Zambian National team has finally qualified to the Africa cup of Nations after a long eight year wait and who better to beat than the team that they beat in their first AFCON win, Ivory Coast.
Zambia came into this game with an interesting tactical approach as they dominated the space without the ball and dominated the final third with their pacey runs in behind the Ivory coach defence .
Zambia set up in a 4-1-4-1 mid to low block without the ball and the main intention was to lure Ivory Coast into them so they could exploit the space in behind the Ivory coast defence and this perfectly worked as Zambia scored an amazing goal through Kings Kangwa which showed us exactly what the plan was .
The most important pieces in this approach was firstly Kelvin Kampumbu was was the Defensive midfielder in the 4-1 defensive structure ,his job was to be a midfield sweeper as his job was to make sure Ivory coast don’t play in between the lines or even in the half spaces.
He was amazing in this role which is why he was the man of the match for the author as he kept his game clean and simply winning duels and circulating the ball with ease.
The other important pieces were Patson Daka and Fashion Saka whose roles were obviously to exploit space in behind the Côte D’Ivoire defence.
Credit to Lubambo Musonda who was intense both on and off the ball on the right side as he made sure Tandi Mwape wasn’t overloaded and he gave an option going forward by arriving in the final third at the right time.
The main concern with the approach in today’s game was the build up structure. At times the team was not confident in how it approached that phase of the game and had many turnovers in midfield which obviously needs to improve going forward.
With the amount of pace Zambia has going forward, The team must be able to create quality chances by baiting the opposition press and creating artificial transitions which result in quality chances.
Congratulations to the team for qualifying for the AFCON but we need to continuously improve to be among the elite.
FT: Zambia 3-0 Ivory Coast
[Serge Aurier (oG) 31′, Patson Daka 48′, Kings Kangwa 55′)
Thanks Mutale for the analysis. Didn’t wstch the game but this piece was good enough!
Coach has brougt about the best in these players and in such a short time …think it’s now 4wins out of 4.
If he can stay on then world cup qualification is no longer a North and West African birth right.
Congratulations Zed it was a serious thumping of a top team.
Ivory coast can make their excuses…it doesn’t matter one bit!!!
This is what we need. A team that can play football out of our line with confidence. What the technical bench did today was out merit for players that deserved to start the game. In goal, defence and midfield. Moreover, the comments he made that ‘only players that are ready to play for the country will be considered’. That brings results!!! The choice of goal keeper was 200%!! No one expected that and his performance was excellent!! Balanced player!!!
Congrats chipolopolo