By Ben Efe
Zambian coach, Herve Renard had wanted to avoid the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the group pairings, but the French-born coach fondly called the Fox, has recalculated his chances as he faced the Eagles that have won all Nations Cup ties against the Chipolopolos.
Renard said after the draw in Durban that his aim will be to top the group and to achieve that Nigeria must have to be beaten.
“We crashed out of the quarterfinals in 2010, we lost to Nigeria. So we have a good chance of revenge against a very good Nigerian team.
Super Eagles celebrating one of Victor Moses goals
“Our target from the group is to finish top and achieve the most important thing which is to reach the quarter final. After that, we can manage to go very far; as far as we can go,” Renard said.
The Chipolopolo will open the defence of the trophy they won in 2012 against Ethiopia on January 21 and then after they will meet the Eagles in the second group game.
“We must negotiate our opening match against Ethiopia. The opening match is very, very important in a competition so we must treat everyone very seriously.”
However, Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi stated that he will be ready for the Zambia challenge. He said that he was not intimidated by the unpredictable Zambian team.
“I believe that every team that qualified for the Nations Cup are good and are strong contenders for the trophy. So, we’ll prepare for tough battles ahead,” he said.
The Chipolopolo handler sees South Africa as ‘home’ because they are always there to train for their qualifying matches and so said it will give them the confidence to tackle their opponents during the Nations Cup.
“We are almost at home here, so we have to be confident. We are here and will be coming here to make history,” Renard told a Zambian online newspaper.
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