Friday, March 29, 2024

Black Sunday for Zesco and Nkana

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It was a Black Sunday for Zesco United and Nkana in their respective Group C away matches of the 2018/2019 CAF Confederation Cup fixtures.

In Sudan, Zesco were downed 3-1 by Al Hilal to see George Lwandamina’s side collect just one point from their last three games since beating Nkana 2-0 at home in Ndola on February 3.

Al Hilal, who drew 1-1 away at Zesco in the first leg on February 24, put on an authoritative display at home in Omdurman when Bakhet Hamid and Mohamed Eldai struck in the 9th and 35th minutes respectively as Zesco battled to get its defensive act together.

But a ray of hope appeared in the 38th minute for Zesco when Lazarus Kambole cut the deficit to see the two sides go 2-1 into the break.

However, Al Hilal captain Abdel Latif Boya extinguished any of those thoughts harbored by Zesco when he unleashed a left-footed long-range volley that sneaked in on the near post beating an out-stretched Zesco goalkeeper Jacob Banda.

Al Hilal top Group C on 7 points, one more than Nkana who fall from first to third after losing 3-0 away in Ghana to second positioned Asante Kotoko in Kumasi.

All three of Kotoko’s goals came in the first 30 minutes of the opening 45 minutes through Safiu Fatawu, Emmanuel Gyamfi, and Martin Antwi in the 4th, 23rd and 28th minutes respectively.

That Kotoko’s blitz promoted Nkana coach Beston Chambeshi to substitute goalkeeper Allan Chibwe for Kelvin Malunga in the 30 minutes to mitigate the one-way traffic in Kumasi.

Kotoko jump from last to second on 6 points with a better goal difference over Nkana.

Meanwhile, Nkana and Zesco now return home to face-off in a bottom two showdown of their penultimate Group C match in Kitwe on February 10.

9 COMMENTS

  1. African coaches please learn from European coaches how to read games,some players were moving like escorts more especially the goal keeper banda needs to be replaced just like his fellow friend Chibwe for nkana,both teams lost due to goal keeping errors.

    • It’s just getting from dark to black for all. Just this year List them:
      – Chitotela
      – Chimese
      – Kambwili
      – Kalaba
      – Mulongoti
      – Sesheke officers
      – ICC convicts
      – Hippos and dogs poaching
      – Ester’s firetrucks
      – selling cadres into slavery…
      Now to soccer players. Sports without minister is same as being in hell.
      It truly BLACK year.

  2. Goal keeper Chibwe killed Nkana. Both the first and second goals were entirely his fault. I don’t know why he was jittery. Chibwe made the same mistake in Tanzania on the first goal Simba scored. What a sad day for Zambian football. After watching Buffaloes walloped by Lusaka Dynamos I thought I was going to find relief by watching Nkana and Zesco. But all matches were disappointing. Our coaches need to do better than this. Learn to study your opponents well and capitalize on their weaknesses. It appears Al Hilla did good home work on Zesco. They made sure Zesco dint play their usual passing game. All their moves were frustrated. In addition Al Hilla sealed the defense very well and were in control of most of the mid field. Every good move by Zesco was killed. Please guys do…

  3. Teams just following government lamentable failure in every thing. Were you expecting a win. Live in Zambia?

  4. Allan Chibwe must be investigated for possible match fixing, has he been in touch with Boniface Mwamelo? Anyway, this is typical of Zambian football, players are not consistent. How come the same team they beat convincingly a short while ago would whitewash them in that manner?

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