Sakala laments Chipolopolo’s abandoned friendly

Chipolopolo Zambia striker Fashion Sakala says the whole team is very disappointed that the second friendly against Mali on Monday evening was abandoned.

The Mali-Chipolopolo friendly was abandoned in Bamako with just 17 minutes played when rain left the Stade du 26 Mars pitch waterlogged.

“All the Zambian players wanted the game to continue; we wanted to play. Unfortunately, the game was abandoned,” Sakala said.

Monday evening’s match came after Chipoplopolo lost 1-0 on September 23 in the first friendly against Mali at the same venue.

Chipolopolo, who left Bamako on Tuesday morning, spent the FIFA international match week in Mali to play two friendlies.

“We wanted to avenge the loss and wanted to win this game, and we were very motivated in the way we started the game,” Sakala said.

And the Glasgow Rangers striker said understood the fans being disappointed in Chipolopolo’s recent performances.

This follows June’s 2023 AFCON qualifiers when they lost 3-1 away to Cote d’Ivoire and later mounted a dramatic late rally from one –down at halftime to earn a last-minute 2-1 home win over Comoros.

“They want us to be winning every game, and I also have seen some posts saying that they don’t want to follow the national team anymore due to health reasons,” Sakala said.

“We will make sure that we start bringing in the results and points so that we can give them the happiness of football in the country.”

Zambia’s next official engagement is next March when they face Lesotho in the 2023 AFCON Group H doubleheader qualifier.

Chipolopolo is second in Group H with 3 points, tied with third-placed Comoros and is one point behind leaders  Cote d’Ivoire while  Lesotho is bottom with 1 point after two rounds played.