NAMIBIA may not be in the battle for Chan 2020 Group D supremacy, but they can influence its outcome.
Victory over Zambia at Limbe Stadium in their final pool match tonight will certainly lift spirits and possibly deny the Chipolopolo a quarter-final berth.
Zambia share top spot with Guinea on four points a piece, followed by Tanzania on three, while Namibia have none.
“We did not come here [Cameroon] to spoil the party of any team. We came here believing sincerely that we could go the distance. Unfortunately, that objective is not realistic any more,” said Namibia head coach Bobby Samaria ahead of tonight’s derby.
They intend to sign off their disappointing campaign, which includes a 3-0 humbling by Guinea and 1-0 loss to Tanzania, on a positive note.
“The match presents us another opportunity to correct our mistakes. It is very simple: It is to go out there without any pressure, and field a team that is capable of winning the match.
“It’s important for us to at least get a goal, as up to now we did not score a goal, and it is important not to concede.”
Captain Dynamo Fredericks, who was dropped for Tanzania, said pride is at stake and they are not lacking motivation.
“We’ll give it our all. We’ll play for the national anthem, the badge and the flag,” Fredericks said.
Football Association of Zambia president Andrew Kamanga cautioned his side against complacency when they face the group’s weakest link.
To undermine the wounded Brave Warriors would be detrimental to their aspirations of securing a quarter-final berth, he said.
Chipolopolo and Guinea played to a one-all draw on Saturday and require only a point to secure safe passage to the last eight. However, victory for Tanzania, coupled with defeat for Zambia would eliminate the southern African nation.
“The job is not yet done for the group stages as three teams still have a chance to crawl out of Group D,” Kamanga said.
“We have urged the team not to be complacent and approach the Namibia match with a fierce competitiveness that will ensure Zambia crosses to the quarter-final,” he said.
“On the evidence of the last two matches, we are confident that they will finish the job and sail to the quarter-finals. Winning comprehensively against Namibia has the added incentive of retaining Limbe as the team base for their quarter-final and hopefully semi-final.”
Similarly, Tanzania gaffer Etienne Ndayiragije hopes the Taifa Stars will shine brighter against the Syli Nationale than they did when eliminating the Brave Warriors on Saturday.
“This is just the continuation of the good works we started doing in this tournament. I am going to review our plan against Guinea to see what measures we can take to get positive results from them,” Ndayiragije said.
Both matches kick off at 21h00.
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