Grant says Zambia picked lessons from qualifiers, shift focus to AFCON

Zambia national team head coach Avram Grant said the Chipolopolo picked a lot of lessons from the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign despite failing to qualify to the global tournament.

With a chance to finish second in the qualifiers, the Chipolopolo failed to beat Niger on the final day of the qualifiers after losing 1-0 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola on Sunday.

Fourth-place Zambia could have leapfrogged their visitors and Tanzania with a victory, but the defeat courtesy of Daniel Sosah’s strike denied them an opportunity, with Niger finishing second behind Morocco, who had already qualified.

Zambia is a good team

Speaking after the game the former Chelsea manager told reporters: “We learned a lot from these qualification games. I think Zambia is a good team. We learned a lot from these qualification games.”

Grant further said focus has now shifted to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Zambia are set to play at the AFCON set for Morocco in December.

“I think the team made huge progress on the football side. I am sure that even you saw that we are playing well and we play much better than the other team. But I believe that if we continue this process, we will get better like this,” he said.

Meanwhile Niger coach Ezzaki Badou said his team was in Zambia for a win.

“We came here to win, and we knew that Zambia came from a good victory from Tanzania, we planned to stop Zambia’s best players, and we waited for our opportunity.”

The defeat confirmed Zambia’s elimination, while Niger will need to wait to find out if they are ranked as one of Africa’s four best group runners-ups who will do battle for a single FIFA Play-Off Tournament ticket.

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