CHAN: Zambia’s Avram Grant blames individual mistakes for Angola defeat

Zambia national team head coach Avram Grant has blamed the team’s second defeat at the the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) to individual mistakes.

The Chipolopolo suffered back-to-back defeats following Angola’s 2-1 win at Nyayo Stadium on Sunday. Substitute Kaporal came off the bench to score twice in the final 11 minutes as Angola staged a stunning comeback to beat Zambia in Group A.

Zambia had lost their Group A opener 2-1 against two-time CHAN champions DR Congo. According to the former Chelsea coach, individual mistakes played a huge part in the defeat but remained confident the side is improving despite back-to-back defeats.

“I think this game we played much better than the first game,” Grant told a post-match press conference as quoted by Bola News. “We created six clear chances, as I saw. We scored one. Then we were winning one-nil and a few individual mistakes cost us, but the players tried their best today. This is football when you miss so many chances.

“I think our performance in the first game was not good. Our performance in this game was good. We are improving every game. This is a new team. It’s a CHAN team. It’s our second game.

“I think it was much better than the first game. I think it will be better than the third game. But we lost today even when we were winning one-nil. I think the chances that we missed cost us.”

Zambia will next face Kenya’s Harambee Stars at Kasarani Stadium on Sunday.