Zambia National team will this afternoon return to the pitch as they square off with Ethiopia in their second and final friendly match in East Africa.
Zambia was scheduled to play four games in East Africa but the games against South Sudan fail through after the Bright Stars failed to travel due to logistical challenges.
Striker Emmanuel Chabula believes the team needs to approach the match like they are facing a new opponent and work on the mistakes they made on Thursdays win.
“Today’s game against Ethiopia, I think we’ll just face them like we are playing them for the first time though We played them on Thursday But this time around it to be a different ball game, So we just have to come out strong again and to work on the mistakes that we made in The first game,” he said.
“Yeah, because it wasn’t good coming from behind, we started playing with pressure as in to equalize and again thinking of winning the game. So this time around I thinks the game for this afternoon, will be perfect to be another stepping stone game in preparation for the forthcoming games.”
“I think it will be nice, You know when you’re playing on the pitch for the first time. You don’t know how it is, Yeah, even the grass was very tall, When you play the first game even this time around I can say it’s just the same, but now we know how the ball moves how the ball bounces so we will also work on that they seemed to outplay us in terms of how to receive the ball, It wasn’t moving to the right direction. But this time around, we know, how to use the pitch since it has too much grass.”
“The training that we had yesterday. We saw that and now know how the ball bounces like this, So it will be nice. We have known it now so it will be to our advantage as well.”
“Looking at the coach’s philosophy, He has emphasized the pressing game, So when you press you to make it difficult for the opponents to know to be comfortable and durable. Yeah, so like the match that we had I was told to press. The coordination up front there, We all got speed we all got the energy. So we are working on that. If we press we get the ball, we punish them,” he added.
According to a post by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) Coach, Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic has made five changes to the team that beat the Walia Ibex heading in this afternoon’s encounter at the Addis Ababa stadium.
Jackson Kakunta starts in goal ahead of Lameck Siame, Last week’s two-goal hero Albert Kangwanda has also been handed a start by Micho together with Leonard Mulenga, Dominic Chanda, and Amity Shamende.
The team will be captained by Zesco United winger who is on loan from Red Arrows Bruce Musakanya. Kickoff is at 15:00hours Zambian time.
ZAMBIA XI VS ETHIOPIA
Jackson Kakunta (16), Kondwani Chiboni (4), Zacharia Chilongoshi (23), Luka Banda (5), Leonard Mulenga (8), Dominic Chanda (21), Collins Sikombe (14), Emmanuel Chabula (17), Amity Shamende (9), Albert Kangwanda (11), Bruce Musakanya (12) -C-
Subs:
Lameck Siame (18), Charles Muntanga (1), Benson Sakala (6), Kelvin Kapumbu (15), Benedict Chepeshi (13), Kebson Kamanga (19), Luka N’guni (22), Thomas Zulu (2), Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba (7), Chaniza Zulu (20), Paul Katema (3), Friday Samu (10)
Thanks again for your support Zambia _3