Zambian winger Chipyoka Songa scored his third goal of the season in the Israeli Premier League but it was not enough as his team suffered a 5-2 loss. Hapoel Petah Tikva gave away a 2-1 lead to lose 5-2 at the hands of Beitar Jerusalem at the 31,000 capacity Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. Timothy Muzie came off the bench to produce a player of the match performance scoring a hat-trick and setting up a goal as 10 man Beitar Jerusalem thrashed Petah Tikva. Shavit Mazal put Petah Tikva in the lead 21 minutes into the match. The hosts were reduced to ten men after Yarden Shua was sent off in the 35th minute following two bookable offences in a space of one minute. Despite being a man down, Jerusalem almost drew level just before halftime but Omer Atzili missed a spot kick to keep the match at 1-0. At the start of the second half, Jerusalem made three changes including introducing Muzie for Ailson Tavares. The 24 year old forward only needed eight minutes to draw his side level but Petah Tikva restored their one goal lead three minutes later, Chipyoka Songa with the goal. Atzili made up for the missed penalty in the first half at the hour mark as he slotted home to make it 2-2. Muzie finished off a John Bosco Kalu pass to put the hosts in the lead for the first in the match in the 79th minute before turning provider for Kalu’s goal three minutes later. Muzie then converted from 12 yards in additional time to complete his hat-trick and seal the win. Despite the loss Songa was praised by the club for his performance and now has 4 goals contributions (3 goals and an assist) in six Israeli Premier League games.
Chipolopolo boss Avram says his team does not want to keep making mistakes that have cost them in the past. The Copper Bullets will face off with the Taifa Stars on Wednesday in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier. Grant, who was speaking at a pre match press conference said despite not having enough time to prepare his team wants to win tomorrow in Zanzibar. Grant wants the Chipolopolo to win their last two games in the World Cup qualifiers and not worry about calculations for World Cup qualification. “As you know, the international window started yesterday and the game is tomorrow. We have players from Zambia, but also we have players from other places. They played two days ago, so they had a flight to arrive this morning. So we don’t have time to plan, but we want to win,” he said. “I don’t know if we don’t have a chance, but we have a chance to be second place. But we still need to win these two games, against Tanzania and against Niger. And we will do our best. We don’t think, we don’t calculate after. It’s part of the winning mentality. We did a good process in Zambia in the last two and a half years. We qualified two times to the Africa Cup. We had, I don’t like this word, but we had a little bit of bad luck in the qualification to the World Cup. We wanted to qualify for the first time in the history of Zambia. But I’m sure if we continue this process, Zambia will qualify for sure.” But for the moment, we have two tough games. We need to talk about these games, try to win. And then you can make any calculation that you want. I think in football, like in life, it’s part of the game. I can say it’s learning,” he added. Zambia lost to Tanzania in the reverse fixture but Grant believes his team were unlucky not to get anything out of the game after having 17 shots and failing to get a goal. Grant feels the mistake leading to the goal is one of the things his side needs to stop and not do ever again as they aim to turn around their dwindling fortunes. “We made mistakes, for sure. We made bad mistakes, if I can say. But we want to learn from this. We spoke about this. And I’m sure that we will not make these mistakes again. Because these were similar mistakes in the last two games like against Tanzania and we don’t want to do it again. But as you know, part of football is mistakes. Unfortunately, in the last game against Zambia, we made a very big mistake. It was 1-0, And then we had 17 attempts on the goal. We didn’t score and we lost the game. And Tanzania fought like crazy,” he said. Zambia plays the Taifa Stars tomorrow in a Group E FIFA World Cup qualifier in Zanzibar at the Amani Stadium. kick off is set for 21h00 CAT.
The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has appointed former Nkwazi boss Dennis Makinka as the new head coach for the World Cup bound Zambia U17 National team. Makinka who was assistant to Ian Bakala takes charge of the team and will be assisted by former Chipolopolo midfielder William Njobvu. Chipolopolo legend Charles Musonda will maintain his position as Technical Advisor for the Junior Chipolopolo. “The Football Association of Zambia has appointed Dennis Makinka as under 17 boys national team coach.” FAZ General Secretary Machacha Shepande confirmed the appointment of Makinka to FAZ Media. Shepande has also announced that former Chipolopolo midfielder William Njovu will assist Makinka while Charles Musonda will be retained as technical adviser. Machacha explains that Makinka will now lead the junior Chipolopolo at the FIFA U17 World Cup.
Zambia U20 National team coach Boyd Mulwanda is set to take over as head coach at ZPL Men’s National League side, Forest Rangers as head coach, the ZamFoot Crew understands. Mulwanda is set to leave his role as assistant to George ‘Chicken’ Lwandamina at Nchanga Rangers to take up the reins at Dola Hill. The ZamFoot Crew understands that Mulwanda said his good-byes to Nchanga Rangers yesterday after the draw against NAPSA Stars. An official announcement is expected from the club later this week. The ZamFoot Crew has learned that Forest Rangers has sent its technical bench led by Mathews Ndhlovu on administrative leave. Ndhlovu replaced Ian Bakala in March and has only been at the helm for six months but the club’s hierarchy believes it’s time for a change. In 2007 the former Kabwe Warriors player guided Forest Rangers to the Coca-cola Cup championship. Fole Malembe are currently 5th in the National League with 16 points after eight games, 3 points adrift of log leaders, Trident FC. The Ndola based outfit were relegated from the MTN Super League last season after a less than impressive campaign.