By Kalumiana Kalumiana
The George Lwandamina reign officially gets underway tonight when Chipolopolo plays Algeria in both sides’ opening fixture of the 2027 AFCON Group I qualifiers in Tizi-Ouzou.
Lwandamina started his second and a half tenure with a dream date against Argentina last March in a friendly that Zambia lost 5-0 in Buenos Aires.
But tonight’s away match is the bread and butter of his job description which is to ensure FAZ’s objective of a third successive AFCON qualification.
The race to qualify for the 2027 AFCON which will be jointly hosted by the ex-East African Economic Community nations of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, has both a personal and institutional element to it.
For Lwandamina, his return is a Patrick Phiri moment.
It’s redemption time for Lwandamina after failing to qualify for the 2017 AFCON and emulate Phiri, who did so in 2008 during his second stint after Chipolopolo missed out on the 2004 tournament.
From an institutional perspective, it is the first AFCON qualifier under the Keith Mweemba regime after inheriting a Chipolopolo that had already booked it’s 2025 AFCON ticket under his predecessor Andrew Kamanga.
Such is the significance of the 2027 AFCON qualifiers.
On the player personnel side, half of the current Zambia squad members were in its infancy when Chipolopolo last roared to victory over Algeria in 2017 during the promising days of Wedson Nyirenda’s mandate as coach with back-to-back 3-1 home and 1-0 away wins in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Fashion Sakala and Patson Daka, who were key actors in that match, are now seniors and leaders of Chipolopolo but have not tasted a win over Algeria since then, with a 5-0 away loss and a 3-3 draw in the 2022 AFCON qualifiers.
“I think we are very excited for this game. We are very excited, I think if we want to qualify for the Africa Cup, the first important thing for us is to win games, and I think we should go there to win the game,” Sakala said.
“I think we are very much excited; we are very much confident that we are going to give the best we can and, obviously, to get the three points. That’s what we want. It’s always important to have young players in the team, and I think they are the future of the Zambian national team. We were once young players as well, and the senior players welcomed us so well, and now it’s our time to welcome the young ones.”
Meanwhile, Chipolopolo’s mission to qualify continues immediately after the Algeria match with a home clash against Togo on September 29 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
