The status quo in Group D was maintained on Saturday after Zambia rallied to draw 1-1 with Guinea in their penultimate preliminary stage match in Limbe.
Guinea stay top, tied on 4 points with second placed Zambia but with a better goal difference, regardless of the other come of the late kickoff between Namibia and Tanzania who head into their fixture on zero points.
Both sides had decent chances in the opening half that ended 0-0 with two falling Zambia’s way firstly when Emmanuel Chabula who turned his back on the ball in front of an obliging goal.
Then in the 41st minute, Clement Mwape’s intentions of stomping the ball in were a millisecond slower than Zachariah Chilongoshi’s cross that was parried for a corner by Guinea goalkeeper Moussa Camara.
The deadlock was broken in the 58th minute when Victor Kantabadouno slipped the ball through a cluster of Zambian defenders after they have failed to properly clear the ball that ping-ponged on them before it fell at Mouri Kante’s feet who fed his compatriot to score.
Chilongoshi then shockingly elected to miss a sitter just after the hour mark as Zambia found themselves under pressure in the hunt for the equalizer.
But Chilongoshi redeemed himself in the 87th minute when his searching cross was headed-in by Spencer Sautu who had replaced Amity Shamende just after the restart.
Chipolopolo must now beat Namibia on January 27 and hope they win Group D to avoid trip to Douala for a potential quarterfinal date with defending CHAN champions Morocco on January 31 who lead Group C on 4 points one point ahead of Togo with a round of games left.
Meanwhile, the result left Zambia still without a win over Guinea in 50 years in now six meetings that have produced three wins , two defeats and a draw in favour of the West Africans.
You tried but we expect better. Learn from this and do better. I will pray for you
Not too bad
Ba LT, on the one hand you say Zambia has not beaten Guinea in 50 years, then you say: “six meetings that have produced three wins , two defeats and a draw in favour of the West Africans” do the two defeats not count as beating them?
Chizungu. It simply means that 50 years has passed since Zambia last defeated Guinea. That does not mean that Zambia has never won against Guinea but that the last time Zambia recorded a win against Guinea, 50 years has passed.
Ba Tedius ni chizungu chakuti? Whether its Spanish, Chibemba, or Latin grammar has rules and those rules haven’t been followed in the story. One rule is to be clear and unambiguous. According to the reporter: the result left Zambia still without a win over Guinea in 50 years in now six meetings that have produced three wins , two defeats and a draw in favour of the West Africans. This could mean plenty of things because of its ambiguity. In 50 years they have now met six times? The six meetings in 50 years have produced those results? I give up
Kwena naine ba nkofyuza ba LT. Ati:Meanwhile, the result left Zambia still without a win over Guinea in 50 years in now six meetings that have produced three wins , two defeats and a draw in favour of the West Africans. Who defeated who then?
I think the defeats are in favour Guinea when they were beaten by South Africa on behalf of Zambia, what can we say ba LT. Congrats boys, go for more wins!!
Congratulations to the team… It’s a fair result. Hard luck in the next game
Keep it up boys … Win the last game now
Why are you wishing the team hard luck in the next game?
Guinea has a football team?
Anyway, this is the level we are at.
Thanks to the excellent works of Kamanga, Zambians can be very proud of their soccer team.
Now we have a coach who’s going to take Zambia to the next World cup finals! He has really impressed me with his excellent ability to read games! That’s one of the attributes of a good coach! Unlike the expertriate coaches we have had in the past 15 years who could not read games, Micho is good game reader. There were instances were fans could read games better than the so-called expertriate coach! But Micho is 101% good game reader! With Micho the Sky is the begining!
Zambia is full of Smart Alecs. Really ba Tedius
@Manganga I agree with you. This coach is one of the best. He can read the game and knows how to use the talent at his disposal to get a result.