The Zambia U23 national soccer team exited the ongoing 2015 Caf U23 Africa Cup of Nations without a single point after losing 1-0 to hosts Senegal in a formality match played in Dakar on Friday evening.
The defeat was the team’s third at the tournament where they finished bottom of Group A following earlier defeats to Tunisia and South Africa.
Mahamadou Diallo scored the only goal of the match when he rose highest to head the ball beyond Kenny Mumba in goal for Zambia from a corner delivered by Sylvain Badji in the 4th minute.
And team coach Fighton Simukonda says football can be a cruel game.
“We said the last game was going to be our consolation game but unfortunately we have lost. But like I always say, football can be very cruel. We played so well but we conceded another silly goal,” Simukonda told fazfootball.com in a post match interview.
“In the beginning we came here to qualify but unfortunately we failed to qualify,” Simukonda added.
“But it is not the end of the road. The players we have now are the future of the Zambia national football team.
” We lost all our matches because our players thought we had easy games. Most of the time we were marking late and giving space to our opponents. That’s how we lost all the three games.”
Zambia were already eliminated going into Friday’s match and were joined from Group A by Tunisia who failed to progress after losing 1 – 0 to South Africa in M’bour.
Hosts Senegal and South Africa progressed to the semi-finals.