Zambia Under-23’s Olympic dream is looking bleak following a wrecking fall in Cairo on Tuesday evening.
Beston Chambeshi’s side suffered its biggest defeat of their three-year project when Nigeria rallied from one-down to crush them 3-1 in their penultimate Group C match at Salam Stadium.
A cool finish from Paston Daka put Zambia ahead in the 12th minute barely hours after landing from his base in Austria to join the cause at the 2019 U23 AFCON Egypt is hosting from November 8-22.
But Nigeria leveled four minutes later when Orji Okonkwo turned in the ball from an Ibrahim Sunusi corner.
Zambia goalkeeper Mangani Banda then could only watch as Kelechi Nwakali put Nigeria ahead in with a seemingly tame free kick in the 65th minutes .
Mangani was the villain yet again when Taiwo Awoniyi punished him for an ambitious surge outside his box giving him no time to recover.
Zambia are bottom of Group B with 1 point after drawing 0-0 with South Africa on November 9.
They must now beat third placed Cote d’Ivoire who have 3 points on November 15 and also hope that South Africa beat Nigeria for them to stand a chance of reaching the semifinals.
South Africa, who beat Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 in the early kickoff, lead Group B on 4 points, one ahead of Nigeria and The Junior Elephants heading into Friday’s final Group B fixtures.
The top three finishers at the tournament qualify to the 2020 Olympic Games.
THE GOALKEEPER MUST BE BENCHED FOR NEXT GAME, HES TO BLAME FOR ALL THE THREE GOALS, THOUGH THE NO. 3, DEFENDER, WHO MOVED AWAY FROM THE DEFENSIVE LINE WAS ALSO TO BLAME FOR THE SECOND GOAL, BECAUSE HE BLOCKED THE KEEPER AND THEN MOVED TO THE SIDE TO LET THE BALL PASS? WHERE THEY BRIBED BY ASIAN BOOK-MAKERS? IF NOT THEN MR. CHAMBESHI’S TACTICS ARE VERY POOR! EXPERIENCED COACHES AND PLAYERS KNOW THAT LAST MINUTES ARE ALWAYS DANGEROUS, AS ZAMBIA PUSHED FOR AN EQUALIZE, INCLUDING THE KEEPER IN THIS CASE, NIGERIA MADE A QUICK COUNTER ATTACK AND SCORED THE THIRD! USELESS TEAM! THEY SHOULD JUST COME BACK HOME, SUCH TACTICALLY DEFICIENT TEAM CANNOT GO FAR EVEN IF THEY MIRACULOUSLY QUALIFY TO NEXT STAGE!
The same deficiencies from the U20 World Cup have still not been resolved by Beston Chambeshi & Co
Too short keeper with poor timing & positioning, loose marking, bad tackles, poor marking on set pieces, the list goes on & on, what a shame
Local coaches. No style No quality .No chipante pants fye. Aha ! you think Zambia can beat Ivory Coast? Elo wait and see how Chipolopolo will be humiliated by Algeria.
When is kamanga’s tenure coming to an end? see why some people should never be trusted to rule this country? Am just saying
Zambia is in a hurry to development and that the current government is trying by all means to make it happened, So far so good that the rains have come it is our time to focus on planting maize at the farms, no wasting time on social media let us work. God has given us land, air, energy, and free rains.