By Sports Reporter
Zambia national football team will finally return to the prestigious stage of African football showpiece after a resounding 3-0 dismantling of Ivory Coast at a packed Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
The score line may be a little flattering to the improving hosts who started jittering but took control of their destiny knowing fully well a loss will have set up a potential banana skin encounter with the tricky Comoros Island.
Chipolopolo and Ivory Coast are hardly strangers to each other having battled at the grandest stage of the Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2012, so there was no love lost before and after, so it was no surprise that the visitors started brightly intent to spoil the party.
The game was most likely to tip in favour of who scores first and Serge Aurier presented The Chipolopolo with a priceless goal when he made a meal of Emmanuel Banda’s hopeful ball forward towards Fashion Sakala to break the deadlock at the wrong end.
Having scored three goals in the last qualifier and on a three-game winning streak the Chipolopolo smelled blood and extend their lead in the 47th minute when a dawdling Eric Bailly was easily swatted aside by Patson Daka to extend the lead.
In the 54th minute Daka and Emmanuel Banda exchanged passes with the later crossing into the penalty box, with the Ivorian defence again in a mess it was left to Klings Kangwa to apply a composed finish sending the capacity crowd into delirium.
Coach Avram Grant has delivered the converted qualification but his team is still struggling to convince and his standing with the soccer fans is still a complex matter.
For a start Grants Chipolopolo lining up in what looked like a 3:5:2 or 5:3:2 seemed not sure on who was supposed to be where, the defence was early on positioned too much to the right creating space for opponents behind left wing back Rodrick Kabwe.
Tandi Mwape was solid if unspectacular while the returning Stopila Sunzu oozed class and was a galvanizing effect for the crowd. The hope going forward is that the strapping on his knee was for decoration rather than anything serious to be exploited by more slick opponents.
The midfield double pivot of hardman Kelvin Kapumbu and Emmanuel Banda was at sea, both had grit but zero creativity. They seemed no to know who was the runner and the screener which gave opponents plenty of space in the middle of the park.
The role of goal scorer Kangwa was not well defined and skipper Lubambo Musonda spent the day beating his man and crossing balls to nobody.
Inter Daka and Sakala, two great forwards with a knack for goals, with different skill set and an interwind history but for some reason seems to forget each other the longer they play together.
And the last but not least of Coach Grants confusing tactical decisions is his reluctance to give Lameck Banda more game time. Banda to the uninitiated is a tricky winger with Serie A side Lecce in Italy.
On paper he is the player plying his trade at the highest level compared to his peers, on the field of play he is spectacular and has end product, there are still some heads spinning in Lesotho on the mention of his name.
Yet Grant is not convinced and to add salt to injury he makes him warm up for more than 15 minutes only to be introduced with two minutes remaining.
The lack of fully utilizing the squad undermines team ethic and may be problematic in future. Obviously, all the players on the bench were wondering why the coach couldn’t trust them even at three nil.
The Grant revolution is certainly taking shape and has managed to ride the first wave now the work begins.
