• Hands up if you like the strike: Two-goal hero Patson Daka scores in acrobatic fashion. Picture by Jean Mandela

By Sandra Mwila At Heroes Stadium –
Zambia 3 Egypt 1
A PATSON Daka brace yesterday gave Zambia a perfect three in the Group Stage of the ongoing 2017 under-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) with coach Beston Chambeshi saying this was the right warm-up for Wednesday’s semi-final.
With Republican president Edgar Lungu, who also serves as FAZ patron in the stands, the team was never going to disappoint in this tough game.
Chambeshi was all ecstatic after the game especially that he finished the group with maximum nine points.
“We just need to prepare adequately for the semi-finals and we don’t mind facing any team,” said Chambeshi as his Egypt counterpart Motamed Gamal stated they tried their best in the competition but conditions were against them.
In this Group, Egypt and Mali will be packing their bags today.
“We dominated the first half, we were ready to win, we tried our best but Zambia came back and put pressure on us,” Gamal said
Just as in the Mali game, Zambia needed to come from behind to pummel their opponents, this time the North Africans, who have been the bogey customer for Zambia at all stages of the tournament.
At least, Zambian fans will remember that to get to their first FIFA under-20 World Cup in 1999, a highly talented Zambia battered Egypt 3-0 at Independence Stadium in a game the Egyptians offered close to nothing as Emmanuel Zulu, Nsofwa Chaswe, Bernard Makufi, Andrew Sinkala and Chintu Kampamba punished the young Pharaohs.
But at this tournament, it was a different set of equally talented players who delivered a near-perfect performance which was pleasing to the 60, 000 fans that packed Heroes Stadium.
Egyptian captain Karim Hassan had given his side hope by netting in the 35 minute through a shot that gave Zambia goalie Mangani Banda no chance. He was put through by Ahmed Muhammad.
This gave Egypt hope that they would qualify to the next stage especially that they were going into this game undefeated and had two points, one better than both group rivals Mali and Guinea, who were squaring off in Ndola.
After that lead, Zambia was left looking back at wasted opportunities that started with Daka shooting straight at goalie Mohammad Mohammad after just two minutes and then in the seventh when Fashion Sakala shot wastefully wide.
After the quarter hour, Egypt started pushing and threatened through Akram Hassan whose shot Zambia defender Solomon Sakala cleared off the line before they scored and took a 1-0 lead to the break.
But just before the break, coach Beston Chambeshi introduced a reliable game changer in Emmanuel Banda for Crispin Sakulanda who was making his first start at this tournament
And it did not take long for Zambia to equalise with the goal coming in the 48 minute through Daka who connected with aplomb after a Fashion Sakala header teed him up.
Zambia smelt blood and were not going to stop and in the 63rd minute, Fashion Sakala let off a thunderbolt that defender Osama Toema blocked.
The game then went into a dull stage with Egypt making two substitutions that slowed the game and four of Zambian’s players going into the referee’s book.
But Zambia was not going to be denied a win on home soil and on 71 minutes, they went ahead with a sublime Fashion Sakala header off an Enock Mwepu cross before Daka completed his brace in the 90th minute with a trademark goal of racing at the goalie and side-footing him.
Mwepu was later voted man-of-match with nine points adding to the day’s joys.