Kennedy Mweene says there is still hope of Zambia reaching the quarterfinals after stuttering to a second successive draw in Group C at the 2013 Africa Cup.
Mweene kept Zambia’s Africa Cup hopes alive when he converted an 83rd minute penalty to make sure they shared the points with Nigeria.
“I think we still have hope we are working extra hard we cannot just give up the Cup like that,” Mweene said at Mbombela Stadium after the game.
“We have to fight that is why we are champions we have to fight back like we did today.”
Zambia must beat Burkina Faso on January 29 at Mbombela to keep their dreams alive of making into the last eight for a third successive outing.
Burkina Faso enjoy a two point lead at the summit of Group C on four points after thumping Ethiopia 4-0 in the second game of the groups doubleheader at Mbombela on Friday.
“So I think it will not be easy for us to go out we have to fight until the last game we will qualify to the quarter finals,” Mweene said.
Abandon all hope in AFCON ’13 Mweene.Where your hope shud focus on is improving our stone age schools and cleaning our filthy towns to get rid of cholera.AFCON is a waste and i hope zed lose big like Ethiopia.
Imwe bakamba Muli chipuba! if you dont like football just zip it!! Zambia is one of the best times at AFCON!!and we can even fully defeand it!!
Go tuck your head in some shhit
Mune, I totally agree with your sentiments. In life, there comes a time when you have to take a step back and be “brutally” honest — this is that time!!! If Zambia want to become a “powerhouse” in African soccer, we need to focus on developing TALENT — paramount is to devote resources to CHILDREN and to the YOUTH. Is FAZ involved in soccer at the under 5, 15, 17, 21 and 23 level? Where are the academies where football talent is bred? Even in the premiership, besides those teams that have huge amounts of money to spend, it is teams with academy football that are blossoming. This is where “RAW” talent is tapped. In Zambia we need to focus on breeding talent and forget about these AFCON cup. You like it or not, Zambia will never lift that AFCON cup again (not in my lifetime!!)
Ucar, Chomba, Zoom, even Kalusha were all tapped from the football fields in Wusakile, Ndeke etc. ZCCM had recreational centers that were dedicated to the task of breeding sporting talents and this is where most (if not all) the great footballers of Zambia originated. Today, these recreational facilities are nothing but places where people drink (ifikulwa ifya bwalwa!!) Tell me if any talent can ever come out of these. Please people, let us wake up and address issues here. Dont sit back and bask on glory that came our way by PURE LUCK!!! FAZ need to redirect their attention to the concept of breeding talent. Look at the football academies in Ivory Coast, the results of which are numerous talented footballers!!! I rest my case…
mweene you carried team… great tongabull! you have shown those useless bembas how its done
Shallow minded tribalist!
Keep the faith and fight on. Chipolopolo and Renard, Zambia believes in you.
well done boys
Thanks 4 saving us Mweene from the embarrassment!!
mweene u have my respect!!
They still have a chance to qualify to the quarterfinals and even semifinals. Are you surprised that they drew with Ethiopia? What about Chelsea vs Barcelona? We still have 100 % chance to beat Burkina Faso and progress. Just wait up to the end.
Pa Zambia too much talk blah blah look at the Ethiopian support it will be a shame if they are out as they have a massive support of beautiful ladies with their own natural hair noti fi fake Brazilian hair and fi fake engrish accent. Ba Zambia can’t even travel next door to South Africa to fill a small stadium.
Weldone Mweene for saving Zambia. Ur penaulty taking is so faultless. hey you have made us proud and yes Zambia will qualify to the quarter finals and up the Game. people willbe suprized we in the finals.
Ethiopia played their lungs out against us. pipo starting making Noise that they will reach the finals. look now bashed whilst Chipolopolo marches on to the Finals quitely.
Bravo Mweene, we ll definitely win tjid group, we ll thrash Burkina Fasso. Football is not a linear equation. Just because Burkina Fasso beat Ethiopia whom we drew with doesn’t mean they ‘ll beat us. Simmilarly, Ethiopia losing 4:0 doesn’t mean they ‘ll easilly lose to Nigeria, they ‘ll play for pride and exit with honour!!
Burkina Faso is in more danger of exiting as they may feel they have qualified and ‘ll just draw, but we ll defeat them!!!
Zambia and Nigeria may go thru and it I’d also feasible for Burkina Fasso to lose and gprs thru eith us as Nigeria can draw!!!
@ 2 Ndobo,
That reasoning is pathetic and shallow, Mweene is Zambian and am proud he is our next captain, he deserved it, am a proud Bemba and support home 100 percent
So drop ur shallow narrow tribal spectrum on soccer, Mweene is a national hero and asset,leave him out of ur tribal lenses!!!
accept mweene is tonga like HH… in fact tongabul
zambians are a strange pipo. Why do we ve chicken heart; just coz those ethiopians who play street football held us to a draw and were beaten by the bukinabes;most zambians ve lost hope.every one is coming strong against coz we are champions.if nigeria played the game they did aganist bukina faso, would ve beaten them 4-0
was just reading bbc report about zambia/nigeria match. I now conclude the british media is out there to put zambia down coz of nigeria’s strong epl contigent. Like the two moroons of commentors yesterday, bbc chose to ignore reality. This is what has made england a perrenial escotee at world/euro cup. British media is a useless biased hipping tool for epl.
I totally agree with you, Tony Bair. ITV4 commentators are always biased against Zambia. For example, those epl men on ITV4, obviously in support of Nigeria, saw everything wrong about the decision the ref made for the penalty Zedians scored, but saw everything right about the penalty the Super Birds failed to score. But wait, if Zambia keeps wining, they will start adjusting (in fact swallowing) their words. That is what they did last year; and that is what will happen this year. The Epl mentality won’t pay. Their epl stars won’t shine; Chipolopolo will!!!
The selfsame useless BBC that awarded Christopher Katongo “BBC player of the year”….when people criticism you then there is something wrong with the critic. If someone came to your restaurant and told you the food is always overcooked and too spicy..you will disagree and say that’s the way you always do it!lol
Nigeria was robbed, that was not a penalty on Mayuka.
British media is one of the most biased. It created the dreaming fans in Britain by making them believe England is a Soccer Super power. Loss after failure after loss has followed but the Britons don’t just wanna wake up to the Truth: there is no Great Britain in soccer- may be in oppressing the World.
I am suspicious of the way Zambia performed against Ethiopia, especially after the comments by the coach. Or is it just me? Was the match sold? We deserve answers for such a shoddy performance against Ethiopia. That was a game from which we ought to have collected the much needed points and top the group. Mwamoneni bane nomba!
Let’s accept the defeat coming soon so that we can start cleaning he house for the world cup.
Mweene i believe you you just earned my trust!
Efyo chifwilefye ukuba ifi.
the chipolopolo boys stil hav 100% chance to qualify to the quaterfinals,we going in head first no fear just like always.chipolopolo all the way..Mweene u r the man u saved so much embarracement…wel done OMUNENE!!!!.
Mweene u r the man mwandi ama say it again….
I have just realised how much more pressure we are in? we have to win against Burkinafaso atleast by more than one gaol to be on the safe side, otherwise, we might be out if Nigeria win against those boys the will be playing, especially if they score more than 2goals, i hope they loose, period.
#2 ndodo grow up and stop bringing stone age contributions to this page, mweene did it for Zambia sink this in your head.Avoid being a tribalist, Wishing the team well.
#12 TONY BLAIR, i fully agree with you. That article was really biased and very dismissive of Zambia and also i felt very upset at the way they ridiculed John Obi Mikel as well. It was a very negative article and for some of us that were unable to watch the match , gave a very bleak picture of the game. But having said that, Zambia needs to improve to qualify. The game against burkina faso will be the most important of this campaign. We also have to remember that even last year we looked bad on paper but we are the holders, arent we? lets be positive guys and stand behind our team. Go chipolopolo.
You are champions you should put up a performance worthy of champions do you Spain playing sloppy in their second game and relying on other teams to progress….just accept criticism as feedback. As for Mikel he should not have taken that penalty as he has never been a penalty taker.
dejavu, does anyone remember Greece and Euro 2004, kind of reminds me of Zambia and AFCON 2012.
Jay Jay you are very negative thus why l questioned you whether you are a true Zambian. Zambia is not scoring that is a problem and everyone agrees with that. May be when they progress to the semifinals you will shut up. Just stand behind the time and give them support. Our strikers are not as sharp as last year. The game they are playing is not bad. They played better than Nigeria and had possession. If our strikers can replicate the form they had last year, l think we can do well in this competition. This time the only problem lack of form for our strikers. If we don’t progress that is gonna be the main thing. They are not playing poor football. Every independent soccer analyst will agree with this.
There’s no shortage of fire power and prowess in our team to go all the way and even defend the cup!. We are just killing ourselves by failing to start with our best line up. It’s important to start a game with the correct line up and not rely on substitutes. These are meant for replacing injured players and strengthening up to only 3 positions in the team. In fact what we need against BKF is an all out attacking team that is also capable of defending, so let’s do it boys … We’ve done it before!!!
MWEENE is one Solid player taking an extra mile to return the CUP. The rest of the players?? I reserve my comments?? Mbesuma?? Giving a ball to a Nigerian goalkeeper?? He would have scored that ball. THERE IS NO HUNGER FOR GOALS AND PLAYING LIKE THEY ARE NOT CHAMPIONS.