Zambia coach critical of squad for putting COSAFA Cup title at risk

Chipolopolo have to wait until later this afternoon when Mauritius take on Mozambique to find out whether they will progress to semifinals of the regional tournament in Durban.

Despite beating Seychelles 4-2 on Tuesday, Sichone lamented the lack of effort, which has left them needing favours.

"I was happy when we scored 4-0 and then after that, I don't know what went wrong with the players. We made a few changes, we thought we should bring some fresh guys who haven't played a lot of minutes but we could see that when you have a lot of players who don't have experience, you start experiencing such things," Sichone said.

Zambia are currently in pole position to make the next phase of the tournament as the best placed runner-up after Malawi clinched top spot in Group B.

Sichone is going to need Mauritius to win 4-0, which upsets him even more.  

"I must say I'm quite disappointed because of the attitude. If you score four goals the game is done. You need to concentrate. It's just unfortunate that each game we are allowing silly goals," the coach explained.

Asked if the players selected to represent Zambia in this year’s COSAFA Cup have raised their hands, Sichone had only negative feedback.

"I must be honest most of them it's quite disappointing. We tried to give everyone a chance and in a tournament like this, they were supposed to show the country that they are ready. They also want to put pressure on those guys who are playing in the main team but it's unfortunate."