Zambia

Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant says his team has shown a lot of character in navigating its way in the Group G Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers amidst injuries.

And Grant has wished injured Saudi Arabia based forward Fashion Sakala quick recovery after suffering a head injury whilst playing a league match.

During a media briefing at Football House where he named a 24-member provisional squad, Grant said the players that had stepped in the void for their injured colleagues had shown great character.

Grant will be without the injured Patson Daka, skipper Lubambo Musonda, Kingstone Mutandwa, Edward Chilufya, Miguel Chaiwa and Fashion Sakala for the back-to-back fixtures against Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.

“We know we have difficulties with the missing players but we have showed a lot of character in the last game, we need to build on this. We need to be on our best and we will do everything to be on our best, the first game and the second game,” he said.

“I do not think in any case that, in any result in the first game it will be over, the second game also will be important. But we saw a lot of character in the games against Sierra Leone and against Chad, there is room to improve, I think we are on the right way.”

Grant said the team was not just looking at the Ivory Coast match but also the Sierra Leone task to be sure of qualification.

“We cannot say we give up against Ivory Coast and say we will play against Sierra Leone. We need to do our best against Ivory Coast, also last year (2023) we played against them and we played well. In football anything can happen,” he said.

“I have a lot of respect for Ivory Coast, all the players are key players for teams in Europe, we don’t have such players but we have the spirit. We are playing like a team, we have a good spirit and I think with this we can achieve a good result. I cannot say we will put effort in one game. We will put effort in the two games. Our target is very simple when the two games will finish, we will be in the Africa Cup.”

Grant said the pressure to win against Ivory Coast was not any different from last time when the team needed to win to keep its AFCON dreams alive.

He said the desire to return to the AFCON for a second successive time was part of the motivation to qualify this time around.

“I don’t think that it was less pressure, it was a lot of pressure before when we played Ivory Coast. It was the game that I felt most pressure because if we did not win against them last time, we would be out of the Africa Cup or there was a chance that we would be out,” he said.

“We played against a team I remember that there president announced that they did not have good results and he wanted good results and that he will give them bonuses if they win against us.”

Grant weighed in on Sakala who is recovering from a head injury, “I do not speak about this but we need to be human beings, he played for the national team and he did his best for the national team until he made a mistake. He had a bad injury, I saw it and you need to know I have nothing personal against my players. I care only about the team. I love all the players, I love them even when they make mistakes.”

He said that he was never bothered about critics that disparaged him based on age saying even as a young coach he was derided for being too young.

“I was a very young coach when I got chance to coach in the premier league in my country about 30 years. They said that I was very young, I said to them there is one thing that I am asking of you, don’t judge me by my age, judge me by my quality,” he said.

“My age is a big advantage, I have a lot of passion for football, I am here only because of passion, in my life, I may say I did well, my family is okay if you want to ask. I came because I have a passion to give from my experience. The age is an advantage, you saw even the president of America (Donald Trump).”

He added: “In football, you cannot please everybody because in football everyone is a coach, 20 million coaches, in Ghana there were 26 million coaches, in Chelsea 2 billion coaches, you cannot please everybody. Everybody has his own opinion.”

Zambia plays Ivory Coast on November 15 in Ndola at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium before facing Sierra Leone in Monrovia four days later to close the qualification campaign.

The Chipolopolo lie second on seven points with Ivory Coast topping the group on nine points. Sierra Leone lies third on four points while Chad are tail enders on two points. Top two teams will qualify to the Morocco 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to be staged in December next year.