Zambia coach seeks to beat Cote d’Ivoire

Zambia coach Herve Renard has said they respect Cote d’Ivoire, but they wish to beat the favourites to win Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final at the Stade d’Angondje in Libreville, Gabon.

Renard said he also thinks The Elephants will not underrate Zambia despite the disparities in terms of class.
”I don’t think Cote d’Ivoire will underrate Zambia they have respect for us and we also have a lot of respect for them but we want to beat them,” Renard said.

”We will be in a tough game. It will be tough game, like the game against Ghana.” Zambia beat Ghana 1-0 on Wednesday in a match they struggled throughout until the 78th minute, when second- half substitute Emmanuel Mayuka scored the winning goal to see them through to the final.

Zambia goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene said the prospect of facing deadly Cote d’Ivoire striker Didier Drogba baring down on his goal does not scare him.

Mweene, who saved a crucial penalty against Ghana in the semi-final, said they are psyched to face The Elephants.
”I don’t get the shakes just because I am facing Drogba, for us it is just one those games,” Mweene said.

Drogba, like Zambia strikers Christopher Katongo and Emmanuel Mayuka, is on the top of the scorers’ chart with three goals heading into the final.

”There is no panic in camp because we are meeting them,” said Mweene, who features for top-flight South African club Free State Stars.

”I feel no pressure the coach has done a lot for us mentally always tells us to be cool and level headed.” Skipper Christopher Katongo said Chipolopolo are seeking a healing after the 1993 air crash that wiped out a generation of the country’s football stars.

Zambia Captain Christopher Katongo has said winning the 2012 Africa Cup will help in some way to heal Zambia of the 1993 Gabon air crash.
Thirty players, officials and crew members died in an air crash off the coast of Gabon in April 1993 on their way to Dakar to play Senegal in a 1994 World Cup qualifier.

”The strength it has given us is that this team wants to achieve something and finish that goal that our brothers failed to finish,” Katongo said.

”If we can fulfil that dream by winning the cup, most of the tears from the Zambian people will be taken away. I think that is the only strength.”

The team on Thursday held a moving one-hour memorial service on the shores of Beach Sabliere that was the epicentre of where the victims’ bodies were washed ashore.

Thursday’s visit was the first time a Zambian football team had visited Beach Sabliere since the accident happened 19 years ago.

Cote d’Ivoire will be playing in their second final in a space of six years hoping to lift their first Africa Cup title since 1992.

Zambia, on the other hand, go into their third Nations Cup final in search of their first-ever title after picking silver in 1974 and 1994.