Mubukwanu Kaingu
Chipolopolo Zambia returns to action on Saturday for the first time since their 2023 AFCON campaign when they face Zimbabwe at the Four-Nation friendly tournament at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
Kenya and hosts Malawi are the other teams at the Four-Nations where the winners in this Saturday’s semifinal will meet on March 26 while the losers will face each other in a third-place playoff on the same date.
Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant has gathered his strongest team with Leicester City striker Patson Daka headlining 12 foreign-based, call-ups for the March 2024 FIFA international match window assignment.
Grant has stressed the objective of the Malawi trip with an eye on this June’s 2026 FIFA World Cup Group E qualifying dates away to Morocco and at home against Tanzania.
“This is the last time we can see things before the World Cup qualification resumes in June and the Africa Cup qualifiers after that in a space of three months,” Grant said.
“So I think this tournament is to show our shape and see our players who deserve to be in the national team.”
Expectations are high, especially after Chipolopolo’s lacklustre performance at the AFCON in January where Zambia made a group stage exit.
While key striker Fashion Sakala who was one of the disappointing faces at AFCON was not selected for the friendlies, there is one last-minute absentee in the team.
Striker Lameck Banda of Serie A club Lecce, who was part of the 24-member team Grant named, is out due to an injury.
In Banda’s place, SuperSport United forward Gamphani Lungu gets his first call-up since Grant was appointed in December 2022.
The tournament will also offer an opportunity to fringe players like Power Dynamos midfielder Joshua Mutale and Zesco United winger Abraham Siankombo to stake a claim for the June Group E qualifiers.
Mutale and Siankombo have been quite consistent in the domestic league but missed the final cut for the 2023 AFCON.
Meanwhile, this will be Zambia and Zimbabwe’s first meeting since the 2021 AFCON qualifiers when Chipolopolo beat The Warriors 2-0 away on March 29, 2021, in Harare in a formality match after the latter had qualified.
Daka scored a brace for Zambia in that match and its fingers crossed to see if it is business as usual this Saturday as Chipolopolo tries to move on after AFCON.
