Zesco United assistant coach Alfred Lupiya says they will respect guests Green Mamba in Saturday’s game despite enjoying a healthy lead but are determined to advance to the first round of the 2019/20 CAF Champions League.
Zesco head into the preliminary round, final leg leading 2-0 for the first leg tie played on August 10 in eSwatini.
The Ndola giants only need a draw this weekend to advance to next month’s pre-group stage of the competition to stay on course for an unprecedented fifth successive league round continental football qualification by a Zambia club.
“Football is very tricky. If you say we beat them 2-0 you will be surprised that they will beat you 4-0 here,” Lupiya said.
“We don’t dwell on that, we just need to go all-out and field a strong side so that we go to the next round.
“As Zesco, we are going to take that game very seriously, we need to finish the business tomorrow, we are not going to sleep and say we are two goals up, no.”
Lupiya disclosed that influential striker Jesse Were is fit and expected to start against Green Mamba after limping off in the 70th minute of last Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Zanaco in the 2019/2020 Charity Shield final in Lusaka.
Winner over both legs this weekend will face winner of the Young Africans of Tanzania versus Botswana champions Township Rollers away in the first leg of September’s pre-group stage.
Rollers host Young Africans in Gaborone this Saturday tied at 1-1 from the first leg in Dar es Salaam.
The headline makes a lot of sense…with their load shedding it should have read, Zesco aiming to Finnish off all businesses.