Grant Banks on home support to drown Leone Stars
Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant says he expects a better showing from his side when they host Sierra Leone in Tuesday’s Morocco 2025 Group H Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier at the Levy Mwanawasa stadium in Ndola.
Kick-off will be at 21h00 and tickets are available from K40 in all Shoprite stores countrywide via CompuTicket.
Speaking during Monday’s pre-match press conference, Grant said despite the opening qualifier defeat to Ivory Coast last Friday, the team’s target remains the same.
“We need to take points and we need to win the next game (against Sierra Leone). We started well by the performance (in the Ivory Coast game), but we lost against a very good team. But the players showed a lot of commitment, a lot of fighting spirit, which I was very happy from this,” Grant said.
“The game tomorrow will be a different game against a good team. But our target is the same, to win this game and to qualify (for) the second time to AFCON.”
Tuesday’s Group H clash will mark Chipolopolo’s first home match in the qualifiers, and Grant expects thousands of fans to show their usual support against the Leone Stars.
“First, it’s good to come back home. This is really home. The support was fantastic in all the games that we played here. We lost one, but the others we won, and we won because of the supporters. Two games we were 1-0 down and 2-1 down, and they pushed us until we won the game,” Grant said.
“The support is the 12th player. Here it’s the 12th and the 13th, so I am really happy to be back home. Our target is to qualify the second time in a row after a long time to AFCON, and this is our target.”
Captain Lubambo Musonda said it was all systems go for the team against the Leone Stars.
“It will be a good game. I think playing at home is an advantage for us. We have had challenges, a few challenges based on getting points. We haven’t collected enough points of late, but tomorrow is a different game and we are looking forward to it,” Musonda said.
Grant also welcomed back midfielder Kelvin Kampamba from compassionate leave and Red Arrows striker Ricky Banda who has been included in the squad.
“His (Kelvin’s) mom died in the day that we needed to travel (to Ivory Coast). He was in the squad of course. He is one of the players that is a key player for us because he has big change in his character and everything and he played very well against Morocco and very well against Tanzania (at AFCON) when he came. So unfortunately we missed him. But this has happened,” Grant explained.
“We feel sorry. First we feel sorry for him that we lost his mom. I know the feeling. It’s a bad feeling. But I must say that he is very, very committed and he came to the team and he is part of the team now.”