Zanaco’s woeful start to their 2021/2022 CAF Confederation Cup Group A campaign continued on when they lost 2-0 at home to Egyptian club Pyramids FC at National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.
Sunday’s defeat came a week after Zanaco lost 1-0 away to CS Sfaxien of Tunisia in Rades in a match that was destined for a draw until Kelvin Kaindu’s men conceded a stoppage time penalty.
Bafana-Bafana South African striker Fagrie Lakay scored both goals for Pyramids with his first coming on the stroke of halftime.
Lakay completed his brace in the 83rd minute to keep the Egyptians at the top on maximum 6 points after beating Al Ahly Tripoli of Libya 2-1 at home in Cairo last Sunday.
Second placed Sfaxien are in action at 21h00 tonight away to Al Ahly Tripoli in Benghazi.
The naivity of the Zanaco players and lack of tactics by the coach cost them their game at CS Sfaxien. They were defending a 0-0 score, keeping on pretending to be injured and hoping to wind down the clock that way. Even the British commentator remarked “I have never seen something like this before”. I remember another Zambian team getting knocked out of a CAF competition through the same naivity. It was ZESCO away to Primero Agusto in Angola. The sooner Zanaco and all of our players realise that football these days is as much mental as it is physical, the better for us.
Zanaco has never performed well in continental competitions from time immemorial. Perhaps they should be banned from competing in international competitions.
I remember a couple of yeas ago, they were knocked out of the same competition by a team from Botswana, known as Township Rovers.