ZAMBIA coach Herve Renard has said his charges will be looking for revenge against the Warriors of Zimbabwe when the two sides clash in the Cosafa Castle Cup final at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola on Saturday.
Zambia lost 3-1 in the last edition of the competition in Harare in 2009 and after Chipolopolo managed to get past South Africa’s Bafana Bafana 5-3 on penalties, they will now be unstoppable on Saturday.
“There is nothing that can stop us; the boys are ready. Now we are going into the final. The important thing is to win the final, not just to be in the final,” said France-born Renard in his post-match interview on Wednesday night.
“It was really a tough game against South Africa. I have never played such a tough game. We could not find a lot of scoring chances.
“But after the win, we will now win the cup and shift out attention to Chan because potentially, we could meet Zimbabwe again.”
The Warriors struggled 2-1 past Lesotho in the other semi-final on Wednesday and if no technical changes are made on Saturday, they will come up a cropper against the hard-running Zambians.
Tendai Ndoro scored twice in the win in the first half, but the team seemed to struggle with their fitness in the second half. The same problem was evident against Malawi in the 3-1 penalty quarterfinal win last Saturday.
What could also work against Zimbabwe is the passionate support of Zambia fans, who are expected to number 40 000 for the final.
The Cup final marks the end of a short spell coaching the Warriors for German Klaus Dieter Pagels.
The soft-spoken tactician, who cuts a composed figure as he walks up and down his touchline technical area, admits there is much room for improvement if his side is to defend their title.
“We will have to perform much better against Zambia – our football was not that impressive even though we won,” said the coach who is returning home to teach football at schools level.
“Things went better in the second half against Lesotho because we were more organised.”Advertisement