By Kalumiana Kalumiana
Avram Grant says Chipolopolo’s 2026 FIFA World Cup race may be over but the last two formality Group E qualifiers marked will help as an evaluation for his team’s preparations for December’s 2025 AFCON campaign in Morocco.
Chipolopolo’s slim hopes of making the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier playoffs ended on Monday with a 2-0 home loss at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola to Group E winners Morocco who had already qualified with two matches to spare.
Monday’s loss left Zambia on 6 points with two games left to play and now cannot meet the 15 point mark that would have given them a slim chance of making the best four second place finishers playoffs in November.
Grant said during his post-match briefing at Levy Stadium on Monday evening that the better team lost in their match against Morocco.
“This is the first team, it is a good first team. We played good in the AFCON qualification and we will go there not to be a picture; we will qualify from the group stages and I think it is possible. I think we have a good team, we have time until then. We have two games against Tanzania and Niger. We will use those games,” Grant said.
Zambia travel to second placed Tanzania in their penultimate Group E match in October before closing their unsuccessful qualifying campaign at home against Niger.
Chipolopolo dominated Morocco for most of the match but the difference came with the technical depth, especially in the finishing department where the Atlas Lions did not waste probably the only two opportunities they had to score.
Youssef En Nesyri punished goalkeeper Toaster Nsabata for a poor clearance in the 7th minute to give Morocco a one-nil halftime lead and Hamza Igamane intercepted Kabaso Chongo’s ball to score the final goal in the 47th minute.
But Patson Daka and Fashion Sakala also had chances that were kept out by Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou with one in the 70th minute from the latter striker scooped off the line after it had earlier hit the beam.
“I think they did everything and we played against a good team that I think we were better than them. But when we go for the AFCON we will be stronger, no doubt about it. The team is good,” Grant said.
Grant said there were some positive aspects from playing Morocco in the qualifiers despite suffering back-to-back losses to the Atlas Lions, whom they meet again in the 2025 AFCON group stages in December.
“I think if you analyze progress in the last two games against Morocco it is very strange because in Morocco we played very well it was a penalty that wasn’t a penalty (in the first leg)and we lost 2-1, here we lost 2-0. I will repeat again from nothing they didn’t create any chances from the box. We will learn from our mistakes, we will work on our mistakes,” the Chipolopolo coach said.
“We competed against Morocco in the last two games. I think they are better than us on paper no doubt about this. So I don’t think it will be forever but I think that if we continue like this there is a time when we will win against Morocco.”
