…World Cup dream vanishing fast
The Zambia national team, to the dismay of their passionate home fans, succumbed to an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at the hands of Tanzania in a substandard performance on Tuesday night at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Fresh from a 2-1 defeat away to Morocco four days ago, Chipolopolo went into the Group E 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against the Taifa Stars of Tanzania eyeing a victory to salvage their chances of qualifying.
Chipolopolo fell behind as early as the fourth minute. The visitors capitalized on midfielder Emmanuel Banda’s sluggish play at the back. He got dispossessed by Mudathir Yahya, who teed up Waziri Junior to slot into the net and silence the impressive home crowd.
Patson Daka could have restored parity in the 19th minute as Emmanuel Banda sent into the box a fine delivery to find the Leicester City man who headed wide off target.
Daka was once again close to finding the net in the second half but his shot from inside the box came off the cross-bar in the 60th minute.
Avram Grant made two changes in the 67th minute, introducing Kelvin Mubanga Kampamba and youngster Kingston Mutandwa, as the search for an equalizer continued.
Midfielder Kings Kangwa also unluckily saw his well-taken freekick come off the bar in the 71st minute as Chipolopolo crumbled to their third successive defeat in Group E with their qualification hopes now slipping away.
The Chipolopolo now find themselves in fourth position in the group with just three points from four matches played.
The coach blamed the outcome on sheer bad luck, asserting that his charges played exceptionally well and dominated the game and caused a lot of problems for the opponents but despite coming close to scoring several times, the goal eluded them while Tanzania got lucky from just on chance.
He described the experience as frustrating because “one mistake cost us” while maintaining his confidence in the team, which he claims has the potential to pull through and clinch qualification for its maiden World Cup despite the current dismal outlook.
