Zambia give away lead to draw against Benin

Benin 2 – 2 Zambia (Cibrio Soukou 13′ Yohan Roche 80′ | Salulani Phiri 18′, Tandi Mwape 45′)

The Zambia national soccer team was on Tuesday evening held to a 2 – 2 draw by Benin in a game that was played in CotonouBenin at the Mathieu Kerekou Stadium.

Zambia coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic seemed decisive in his team selection as he benched Klings Kangwa and Collins Sikombe who both under-performed against Senegal and brought in Prince Mumba and Spencer Sautu. There was a change in goal as Cyril Mwenya came in for Lameck Siame.

It looked to be a 50 / 50 affair from the start but the Zambia defense looked jittery and they were made to pay in the 13th minute when Cibrio Soukou cut through the middle of defense to shoot past a sliding Tandi Mwape for the opener.

Zambia responded five minutes later following a good move that ended with Salulani Phiri slamming the ball home from inside the box after Roger Kola played the ball into his path when he made a defense splitting run.

The Chipolopolo extended their lead with the last kick of the half when Tandi Mwape finished off a header from Sautu Spencer who had found space at the far post from a corner.

Zambia made a change at the break bringing in Collins Sikombe for the impressive Mumba.

Despite finding good spaces in attack, the Kola and Moses Phiri lacked the cutting edge to finish off the game.

The hosts persistence paid off in the 80th minute when substitute Yohan Roche finished off a rebound from Chibwe who had made an initial save from a point blank header.

Zambia looked rattled after that but they still made a couple of very good chances that they failed to utilize for the game to end locked at 2 – 2.

Zambia will next play Sudan on Friday in Khartoum.

ZAMBIA XI