Sun, 06 Aug 2017 10:50:32 +0000
By MICHAEL MIYOBA
NATIONAL Team coach Wedson Nyirenda says he is not worried with the goalless draw recorded by the national soccer team against Ethiopia in an international friendly match played yesterday at a fully packed Woodlands stadium.
But the fans were not impressed with Chipolopolo performance who took to booing the team.
Speaking in a post-match interview, Nyirenda said he was impressed with the performance of the team despite having failed to find the back of the net.
Nyirenda said his boys played well and created numerous chances which could have seen the team collect their third consecutive victory after the 7-0 aggregate thumping of Swaziland last month.
He said the game was a good preparatory fixture ahead of next week’s CHAN Qualifier against South Africa.
“It was a wonderful game for us, a very good preparatory game. We have now tried our players. The team is now coordinating; we created a lot of scoring chances despite not being able to put the ball behind the net. That is the only thing we didn’t do right but I’m happy with the overall performance,” Nyirenda said.
“Soccer fans will always be soccer fans. Ethiopia played a good game. It was a good test match. They gave us a good run they play almost a similar game with South Africa so this was a good preparatory match ahead of the CHAN qualifier against South Africa,” Nyirenda said.
Zambia dominated play from the first whistle with defender Simon Silwimba being the first to test the Ethiopian goal keeper in the 13th minute of the game but his shot went over the bar.
A minute later the Ethiopian goal keeper produced a fine save to deny striker Augustine Mulenga from finding the back of the net with his well-executed shot on target.
The Ethiopian goal keeper was the busiest as he produced three fantastic saves in a space of two minutes to prevent Chipolopolo from scoring before half time.
Chipolopolo’s dominance over Ethiopia continued in the second half with Justine Shonga and John Ching’andu trying their luck to find the back of the net.
Failure to find the back of the net forced fans to start supporting the visiting team and booed the Chipolopolo boys every time they touched the ball in the dying minutes of the game.
And Ethiopian National team coach Ahshenafe Bekele described the game as good preparatory fixture for his team noting that Zambia is a strong team.
“It was a good game for us. We know Zambia is a strong team but I’m happy with the outcome of the game,” Bekele said.
