Zambia coach Dario Bonetti and team captain Chris Katongo were united today in saying that the three points for the team were more important than the score line after the sides emphatic win over Comoros in the two teams 2012 Africa Cup Group C qualifying match at Nkoloma stadium in Lusaka.
Zambia routed Comoros 4-0 to top Group C on three points two more than Mozambique and Libya who drew 0-0 in Maputo today on match day one in their pool.
The match was delayed for 24 hours due to the late arrival of the four match officials from Eritrea who incurred flight connection problems in transit to Zambia from Asmara on Friday.
“I don’t think so it was just important to win and respect the opponent,” Bonetti said in a post-match interview at Nkoloma stadium in Lusaka on Sunday.
“And today we won and we were had the better game than our opponents. There was a difference in quality between the team.It was important win and easy.”
Meanwhile, Katongo said the team was delighted with the good start in the qualifiers as the race to reach the Gabon/Equatorial Guinea tournament in 24 months begins to gather momentum after the good result against Comoros in Group C.
“The three points was the most important thing,” Katongo said at Nkoloma.
“This the first game of the qualifiers and so when you get three point it is more important than the goals. Yes, of course, three-four-nil is OK but three points is important to the Zambian people.”
Meanwhile, Zambia took a 3-0 lead into the break of their convincing performance in Lusaka through goals from Rainford Kalaba, Fwayo Tembo and James Chamanga in the 6th, 22nd and 27th minutes respectively.
72nd minute substitute Emmanuel Mayuka who came on for Fwayo completed Zambia’s good day at the office with the fourth goal in the 87th minute.
Dario and his side travel to Tripoli next month to face second placed Libya during the weekend of October 9-10.
numbala one! nizeee! aka walai
:)>- Ok, they played well against comoros, they made them toothless. Good start, but we need positive results against Libya and Mozambique. Congrants baice
Keep it up zambia- let us show Angola that we gave them a useless coach. In zambia we have good players-
Well done boys, Chriss’s form is somehow worrying all the same its 3 solid points. The other problem to us not in lsk is the way ZNBC screens these matches we r really going backwards too much money going into politics
# 3 and other like minds, keep angola and herve out of this and move on dam.n it.
problem pa zed refusing to let go!!! chaps herve renard’s success or failure with angola has no relevance whatsoever to our successes and failures. our destiny is wholly in our hands .
Gud result but Chris and chamanga should fight for their starting places they were not impresive
Yawama kwena! Ba zed ni zee. Better start. Congrats!
iye chipolopolo,iye chipolopolo,iye chipolopolo.
Good result but we should have bagged more goals. Comoros are certainly the whipping boys and for us to resort to shoe-shine football is suicidal as Mozambique and Libya might easily whip these guys by bigger margins than we did. Zambia players should use common sense. They tend to play to the gallery at times and end up breaking out hearts in the closing stages of the tournament. We need as many goals as we can. Teams like comoros should be used as test-case of scoring, we should have tried a whole set of strikers abeit risky. Our task must be to beat Libya and Mozambique home and away.
Congrats to the team and coaching staff. Let the coaches now psyche the players as mos of them are lacking self belief.
# 5 Chilombo i couldnt agree with you any more …
that’s our problem pa zed busy focusing on the past in every aspect..
even HR pa zed started poorly until he got the right players so i hope for southern Africa HR does find a good team for Angola so that SADC as a whole can have more representatives most big competitions
i pray Zambia goes through the group stages without many hiccups because its people like #3 that will be asking for the coaches head as soon as Zambia draws or God Forbid they lose
it’s like brazil playing papua new guinea.win against libya then i’ll congratulate you though not much
It is a very good start. I believe we have a good team and let us support our boys.
Chizungu! Ba LT Chizungu! Please we want to enjoy reading the story not going through it as if we are manouvering through landmines Yaba! Anyway congrats Chipolopolo! At least now you are scoring goals unlike in Renard’s time when you thought defence was the way to win a game. By the way Renard lost 3-0 to Uganda Chabipa!
@SATA LI BOLO,niwebo webolo not SATA. ZAMBIA has won and u sayin amfi yobe.
anyway CONGRATS BOYS….WE ARE THE BEST.
I don’t know why Christopher Katonga and Chmanga start. Katongo and Chamanga failed lamentebly, I just hope the coach will do something before its too late. Remember the journey is still long. Congs Felix Man of the Marcch.
DELETED
@SATA LIBOLO,learn to be real and not to discredit honorable people.Change your caption pls we are still celebrating Chipolopolo victory,no need for upsets.
First things first- We wired, mascared, shagged,beat, bent,ponona and menya comoros to pulp! Well done! We have the last laugh. Lets get mozambique and Libya were they belong as well.
LT encourage positive debate not these comments of insults. Have @SATA ****** change his caption if he cant change it himself. We should be united even if we differ in political affiliation. That is tradionally Zambia. Congrats Dario and the lads. Shame on you ba Herve Renard
#5
Whats your problem?
Bra G@20. You are right by talking about positive debate but i must say your final comment on Renard lucks reasononing. Am not sure why you must shame Renard for his wise exit. If its not about good package and a well reputed team assembled by Herve, you think Bonetti would come here, NO. In any sense, Herve used to get 60M nama lilisho pa mwamba. Now he gets about 500M. Dario may have come at the right time but it is too early to judge his perfomance, infact he must do better than Herve thats when zambians hearts will stay put otherwise as far as i know watching these games pa zedterraces, he must stay strong like Renard did. These two may be the best coaches zambia will ever have. lets watch the space.
Good news. Whether they where fasting or not who cares. We got our points.
This is how it should be,but please forget about this and lets focus on LIBYA………
Well done Boys! i feel that Mayuka should be given more playing time next, ba Kabala was a bit rusty, ba captain was out of sorts but overall we played a coordinated game.
Game beginning
We start well but poor finishing kills us alot
CONGRATS BOYZ!!! ni zee. But pliz keep this winning spirit moving all the way to avoid mathematical calculations to qualify nga twafika kuma last. BEAT “EM GUYZ ALL THE WAY.
It’s been ages since Zambia won by such a big margin. The team finally managed to put a smile on our faces. Congratulations boys!. I am particularly impressed with the performance of Fwayo Tembo. What a striker! Eishhh!! He reminded me of Obafemi Martins. Hope the boy maintains his form.
Those saying Comoros is a small team, pipo a win is a win, whether its a big, medium or small team, Zambia carried the day. What a performance!!!!
chipolopolo fye