Zesco United coach George Lwandamina has used an interesting boxing analogy to describe their quest to end their winless away run against Angolan opposition in continental football in Saturday’s CAF Champions League Group A opener against Premiero de Agosto in Luanda.
The Zambian champions are in Angola for the third time where they have lost in successive outings.
Ironically, Zesco’s last defeat in Angola was at the hands of their host this weekend in another group stage match in the 2018 edition of the competition.
Agosto beat Zesco 2-1 after a 0-0 away draw in Ndola.
Prior to that, Zesco were crushed 3-0 away in Calulo by CRD Libolo in the group stage of the 2017 CAF Confederation Cup.
“We go into every game with a positive mind. No coach goes into a match saying I am going to lose,” Lwandamina said.
“But only one coach will win but that will not give us an exception that what happened to us the other year will happen again. We have to improve and that is why we compete all the time.
“If I give you an example of Mohammed Ali; he once lost to George Foreman.
“Did he say I am stopping? He continued until he got back the title.”
Zesco need to leave Luanda with at least a point ahead of heavyweight meeting against five-time champions TP Mazembe whom they host in Ndola on match -day-two on December 7.
But Zesco should be fueled by compatriots Green Eagles feat two months ago against Agosto in Luanda when they collected a rare away win in Luanda for a Zambian club in continental competition.
However, Eagles’ 1-0 win in a pre-group stage final leg fixture on September 29 was not enough to save their CAF Champions League group stage ambitions and bowed out on away goals rule following a 2-2 aggregate result.
Muhammad Ali never lost to Foreman. They fought only once in Kinshasa and Ali knocked out Foreman in round 8
The rich businessman GEORGE Foreman never beat Ali, yes George had the belt, and he demanded for fight to be somewhere, ended up in Zaire.
GEORGE Lwandamina didn’t get right, yes Ali had a rematch with Ken Norton and Ali won. Other few guys who beat him never wanted to overturn the history, they kept their wins!!
Anyway, this is how coaches should be, bring up exciting comparisons.