Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Zambia will host Côte d’Ivoire in Lusaka on Saturday, in the return leg of their final 2015 CAF U-23 Championship qualifying tie.
The two sides played to a goalless draw in Abidjan in their first encounter, with the young Elephants unable to break down a stubborn Chipolopolo defence despite Zambia being down to 10 men after Boyd Mkandawire was sent off for a second booking with nearly 30 minutes remaining.
And while coach Fighton Simukonda’s men failed to score a precious away goal on Ivoirian soil, they are confident of securing a win in front of their home crowd to finish the job.
“Yes we will win. According to how we play the game, it will not be hard to win,” keeper Toaster Nsabata told fazfootball.com.
“Our aim was to score an away goal, but after Boyd Mkandawire got sent off we retreated and started defending,” the Zambia skipper explained.
“We were under pressure in the last 20 minutes but were well organised and managed to contain the Ivoirians until the final whistle.”
The aggregate winners will book their place at the final tournament, which will take place in Senegal from 28 November to 12 December with the top three teams set to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics men’s football competition.
The match will kick off at Nkoloma Stadium at 15h00 CAT on Saturday 1 August 2015.