Zambia play Burundi on Mombasa on Sunday in the 2013 Cecafa Cup quarterfinals looking to end an elusive seven year semifinal appearance.
The last time Zambia Cecafa Cup semifinals was in 2006 in Ethiopia where they went on to win the competition under former coach Patrick Phiri in Ethiopia.
Zambia have since them fallen in the first round in 2008, and at the quarterfinal stage in 2009 and 2010.
And coach Patrice Beaumelle faces the unenviable task of playing Burundi for a second time in the tournament whom they beat 1-0 in the first leg last Sunday.
This is after Burundi qualified to the quarterfinals as the best of the two third placed teams in the three-group tournament.
It took a 65th minute goal from Nkana striker Festus Mbewe who scored seven minutes after coming on to see Zambia break the deadlock against Burundi.
It will be interesting to see whether Beaumelle will gamble again on starting Bornwell Mwape who misfired against Burundi before making way for Mbewe.
His brace against weaker opposition Somalia could still get him a nod ahead of Reynold Kampamba to start alongside Mbewe.
The pressure is on Mwape to convince against Burundi this time to end any doubts about his prowess against stronger opposition.
Meanwhile, Beaumelle will be without key defenders Roderick Kabwe and captain Bronson Chama who are both suspended for the quarterfinals.
The duo picked up two yellow cards each in the group stages.
Winner of this match will face winner of the second quarterfinal match at the same venue in Mombasa between Ethiopia and Sudan in the semifinals on December 10 in Kisumu.
How about under 20 women & men games results.peace…
Our girlfriends lost but its not the end of the world
under 20 women lost 2-0 whilst gentlemen lost 1-0.
This time it will be a convincing win 2 nil in favour of Chipolopolo.
Waste of time and human energy.Don’t we have bigger challenges at home like filthy urban centers,no drugs,nurses strike…and so on?
@Mzambia, everything has to go on in life. you can’t just stop everything else to solve one problem. thats why there is a ministry of health and a ministry of sports. let the ministry of health deal with its issues while the ministry sports also deals with its issues. you might not be a soccer fan and when you see people chasing a ball it does not make sence but beleave you me, there is a lot more than chasing and kicking a ball. those players need to be paid, the coach, referee and lines men, administraters, transporters and even the vendors selling things to the spectators all need money. are you saying all these people should not make money because we have problems in clinics and hospitals?
MZambia. I salute your views. True. Oh let us harass the specific ministries in charge of those areas for answers. This one is for soccer only i think.
Wakamba Soby….we need this type of thinking on this page
The game is on now. We wait for the results. It is a pity that we now have to struggle against teams like Burundi when we have been one of the continent’s footballing superpowers. Such is life, unfortunately.
pliz keep on updating us on the scores for zambia vs burundi game.