Coach Nyirenda
Zambia national football team coach Wedson Nyirenda has described the international friendly match with Zimbabwe played at the National Sports Stadium on Saturday as good preparation for the upcoming 2018 Fifa World Cup Group B qualification match with Cameroon.
Zimbabwe won the match 1 – 0 through a goal scored by Teenage Hadebe on 54 minutes.
“It was a very good friendly game. It has exposed a lot of our weaknesses as we prepare for our World Cup qualifier against Cameroon. It was also good that the game enabled us to see our strong points which we can hold on to. We played a good game but Zimbabwe utilized their only chance which came from a set piece. Our defenders could have cleared that ball but they were caught sleeping.
“We have another match on Tuesday against Uganda. We are going to make changes to the team in that match because some foreign-based players will be joining us on Monday. That will be another good preparation. Although results are important we are only using these friendly matches to see the things that we want to do with the team.
“Cameroon will be at home so they will try to use home advantage but we believe that we have an equal chance of winning. We want to prepare well so that we can turn the result in our favour.”
Nyirenda’s men play Uganda in another international friendly match on November 8, four days before travelling to Cameroon.
Zambia is placed at the bottom Group B after losing 2-1 at home to Nigeria in their opening match on October 9.
Nigeria lead the group on three points with Cameroon and Algeria tied on a point apiece.