Avram Grant held his debut training session in Lusaka on Tuesday since his appointment as Zambia commenced their countdown for the 2023 AFCON qualifier against Lesotho.
Grant was appointed Zambia coach over Christmas and has spent the last three months tracking his players both at home and abroad.
The match will be a 18h00 kick-off on March 23 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
So far, Grant has named his 27-man, home-based team who formed Tuesdays training while with the foreign call-ups are yet to be officially unveiled.
“This is a good squad but I wanted to see them in training for myself,” Grant said.
“They are the present and the future of this country so they need to prove themselves that they deserve it.
“My expectations are that they come with a lot of motivation and show quality.
“In my life, I want to win and my target here is to win games though we might not win all the games but our target is to come to any game with a winning mentality.”
Zambia is battling to end three successive failures to qualify for the AFCON since making their last appearance in 2015 when they made a group stage exit in Equatorial Guinea under then-coach Honour Janza.
Chipolopolo is currently third in Group H and tied on 3 points with second-placed Comoros and a point behind Cote d’Ivoire after two games played.
Lesotho is bottom with 1 point.
Meanwhile, Davies Phiri has been named as Grant’s goalkeeper coach to replace the long-serving Stephen Mwansa while Moses Sichone is the Israel-born coach’s local assistant.
