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ZAMBIA FAVOURITES TO WIN GROUP C
Two-time winners Zambia will start as overwhelming favourites today to book their place in the final four of this year’s Cosafa Castle Cup, pitted against the lowly-ranked Seychelles in the final of the mini-tournament in the Namibian capital Windhoek.
But the surprise nature of Saturday’s semifinals suggests there might yet be a twist in the tale of this two-day, four-nation event, which saw the host nation bundled out and Zambia force to come from behind to win their semifinal.
At stake on Sunday is the place in the semifinals proper of the tournament, which start next month, alongside with defending champions Zimbabwe (who received a bye) and Angola and Botswana, who qualified from similar mini tournaments earlier on in the year.
Zambia’s coach Patrick Phiri said he was not standing any talk of a comfortable passage for his side past the Seychelles side, ranked 141st in world football.
“We played them once before and they drew in Lusaka so we are well aware of what they can do,” said Phiri, back at the helm of the Zambian national side n the wake of the departure of previous coach Kalusha Bwalya
Instead Zambia will have a vigilant eye on the islanders, who held Namibia to a 1-1 draw in Saturday’s second semifinal at the newly built Sam Nujoma stadium in Katatura and then beat them 4-2 on post-match penalties.
Wilnes Brutus handed Seychelles a surprise 11th minute and although Namibia equalised just seven minutes later through Costa Khaiseb, could not find a way through a gallant defence.
There were some glaring misses late in the game and Namibia captain Henrico Botes also hit the woodwork but the newly-named ‘Pirates’ held out for a famous first-ever triumph in the annual southern African championship
Zambia showed kinks in their usual smooth-suited armour when they had to come back from behind to win against Malawi.
Zambia in fact trailed from as early as the 16th minute when Noel Mkhandawire put Malawi in a surprise lead but got three goals in the last six minutes to completely turn the tie around.
First substitute Dube Phri equalised, a minute later Rainford Kalaba made it 2-1 and for good measure captain Chris Katongo added a third 120 seconds after that.