On Tuesday 19 April, Zesco United became the only club to reach the group stages of the CAF Champions League for a second time in the country’s history, after knocking out Mali's Stade Malien 5-2 on aggregate, a feat that has delighted Head Coach George Lwandamina.
In a post-match interview, Lwandamina, who doubles up as the Zambia National team’s tactician hailed his charges for a good show of edging the Malian big wigs 2-1 in the return leg on Tuesday to add on to the 3-1 away result on 9 April.
Six games
He notes that the team’s progress is for the pride of the country’s football and that they are in the group stages to compete with West and North African opponents.
“It was not an easy thing, we played well although at some point relaxed but the boys picked up and took charge of the game especially in the second half. The boys played very good football and at the end of the day, managed to reach this stage which was one of our targets to reach this year. It doesn’t mean we have gone to sleep, this is the stage work intensifies,
“All I can say is, this is where the job has started, the six games we played to reach this stage was just warm up but this is where we have to beat our own record as a club and as a technical bench we will not relax but work harder. We are going back to business and on Saturday we will be in Choma to play Eagles,” he said as quoted on the club site.
Psyche the boys
He further added that they have lined up plans to psyche the boys on how to tackle West and North African teams. The team is home to Kenyan trio Anthony Akumu, Jesse Were and David Owino.
