Herve Renard has called on his players to respond by doing the talking on the pitch after that below performance against a 10-man Ethiopia in the opening match of the South Africa 2013 African Cup of Nations Group C.
While the group is still wide open after Nigeria and Burkina Faso played to a 1-1 draw, the ever demanding fans on the streets of Lusaka have been quick to express their displeasure at the Chris Katongo captained side and the critism hasn’t gone unnoticed in the Team Chipolopolo camp.
The Frenchman who was hesistant to give an interview after Tuesday’s training session, came out rallying his troops to come good on the pitch.
“You want us to talk no, we should not talk but we should talk on the pitch,” Renard said.
Then he shifted and took a swipe at the Chipolopolo faithful, “People in Zambia talk a lot and one day you will see when we will be out,” Renard warned.
Renard reminded the fans that Zambia was in similar situation at the Angola 2010 African Cup of Nations after they drew with Tunisia but went on to beat Gabon and lost to Cameroon but still ended up to book a quarter final berth against Friday’s opponents Nigeria.
“They said the same when I left the first time, you know, that they say you have to change this one, bring this one and you can change everything,” Renard said.
“You want to talk about Nigeria? The press conference was yesterday.” Group C is tight with all four teams tied on one point each after the Super Eagles also drew 1-1 against Burkina Faso at Mbombela.
Meanwhile the 8 players who completed 90 minutes didn’t train on Tuesday with the rest of the fringe players. Chisamba Lungu is the only major doubt as the midfielder cum full back is struggling with an injury.