Emmanuel Chabula recounts his outing with Chipolopolo

Zambia national team and Nkwazi football club striker Emmanuel Chabula says the FIFA international break has helped the team to get strong ahead of the next assignments. The chipolopolo striker said this after Zambia’s three friendly matches against Malawi, Kenya, and South Africa.

“I would say it has been great, we are have been trying to come up with a strong team and we have been working on areas were by the ball has to move by the passing game and so that’s what we have been trying to work on and most of all to come up with the strong team if I may say so, “Chabula said.

Chabula played in all the three games Zambia played during the October FIFA window and the striker thinks the game Zambia won 1-0 against Malawi via a Collins Sikombe lone goal was his best game during these friendlies though he was unable to find the back of the net in that game.

Chabula missed several chances in the 1-0 win over the Flames of Malawi and his goal came in the 2-1 defeat to Kenya after he came off the bench to head home from a from Kelvin Mubanga cross.

“I would say the one we played against Malawi though I didn’t find the back of the net on that one I was positioning very well I received the balls in good angles and I did fight accordingly though I didn’t find the back of the net,” Chabula told the ZamFoot Crew.

The Nkwazi talisman believes when you come off the bench you need to change the game and get the best-preferred results.

The only belief which was there is that when you come off the bench you have to change the game. Those people who were on the pitch seemed to be tired, when you come in at least you need to add more fuel so that the team gets the best result. The coach told us we are two-nill down so we need to pull up, go fight,t and at least when we pulled one back the tempo went up though it was just unfortunate that the lineswoman didn’t give us that goal.

Coach Micho assembled a team comprising of the locally based and foreign-based players during the three friendly games in preparations for back to back 2021 AFCON qualifiers against Botswana in November and the  CHAN tournament which is scheduled for next year January after being postponed in April due to COVID-19.

Chabula believes the team is up to the challenge for the championship rather than just being mere participants.

“When you look at how he has assembled the team, as locals, we are putting in the best so that we find ourselves there as we have played these games in preparation for incoming games for CHAN and AFCON qualifiers I think we are in the right channel we are getting there even other players who are playing abroad when they come we combine the spirit of the local and their spirits then we put the tactics of the coach together we are going to achieve something,” he said.

“Even when we go to tournaments like CHAN we will not only be just participants we will be competitors. We will win something definitely because as far as am looking at how we are playing so far so good am seeing something good coming.”

” It has given us an insight on the forthcoming games if we face the team like this how are we going to handle this, if we face the team like this and if maybe we are one-nill down how are we going to come up an win that game,  for me think these games have helped us to see and to measure ourselves where we are and which direction we are heading into,” he added.

Emmanuel Chabula was one of the scorers during the CHAN qualifiers when Zambia beat the Zebras 3-2 at the national Heroes stadium earlier this year and believes he can repeat his feat if given a chance.

Because I remember Botswana doesn’t change their team because the one we played against during CHAN qualifier is the same team which will come and it’s a massive boost I scored in that game which we won 3-2 even this time around I will repeat the same because they say history repeats itself so I will just do the same if given the opportunity and expect more goals this time around because at least I have grown now am into football now so am seeing everything perfect and expect more goals,” said a buoyant Chabula.

Zambia hosted Malawi on 7th October and won 1-0, two days later they were away to Kenya where they were beaten 2-1 with a clear goal wrongfully disallowed.

The Copper Bullets finished their FIFA window outing with one of their best performances in recent years against their old rivals Bafana Bafana as they came from a goal down to record a 2-1 win.