Zambia national team coach Avram Grant says his side will be targeting a second place finish in their group to qualify for the Morocco 2025 Africa Cup of Nations tournament ahead of the next round of qualifiers slated for this month.
Currently second in Group G with seven points, Zambian only needs a draw from their last two games to qualify.
Chipolopolo will host group leaders and reigning African champions Ivory Coast in Ndola next week before going away to play Sierra Leone in their final qualification match.
Grant says qualification for the AFCON remains the Chipolopolo’s ultimate goal after the two qualifiers.
“We have two very important games and our target is still the same, we want to get back to the AFCON. We went back to AFCON [2023 edition played in 2024] after a very long time and we want to do it again. I think we have done a very good job so far,” Grant told reporters.
The experienced Israeli gaffer revealed that Chipolopolo have set clinching second place in Group G as their main priority with the Elephants of Ivory Coast sitting comfortably at the summit of the group standings with nine points.
“Ivory Coast have a good team and they need only a point to qualify so I think our mission is to compete against Sierra Leone for second place. We want to finish in one of the two top places [in the group] but second place is the most important so that we can go to AFCON which is a very good target for us,” he said.
Grant has named a 23-man squad for the two upcoming qualifiers with a number of key players including talismanic Leicester City forward Patson Daka, Miguel Chaiwa and Edward Chilufya among others still missing through injury.
Grant bemoaned the unavailability of key players but backed his available side to go on and deliver in the two matches following their spirited performances in the back-to-back meetings against Chad last month.
“We know how difficult it is with the missing players but we showed a lot of character in the last game and we need to build on that and we need to be in our best form in both games,” Grant said.
Grant went on to wish all the injured players including Fashion Sakala speedy recoveries, insisting that he retains compassion and respect for the Saudi Arabia-based striker as a human being as well as for his contributions to the national team respectively.
“I don’t want to speak about this but we need to be human beings and he played for the national team and did his best until he made a mistake. He had a bad injury and I really wish him all the best and I hope he will recover well and get back to his normal life,” he said.
Sakala who suffered an horrific head injury last week while featuring for his club Al-Fayha, has not played for the Chipolopolo since the 2023 (played in 2024) AFCON in January after a public fallout with Grant who has demanded for an apology from the player before he is recalled back to the national team.
Meanwhile, Grant will be delighted to welcome back fit-again dependable centre-halves Stophila Sunzu and Frankie Musonda as well as Italy-based attacker Lameck Banda who are part of the roaster to face Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.
Chipolopolo will take on the Elephants of Ivory Coast on Friday, 15th November in Ndola before traveling to face Sierra Leone four days later.
