Zambia’s World Cup Hopes End With Defeat Against Tunisia

Chipolopolo’s qualifying campaign for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is over, with a 3-1 defeat in Tunisia in the final Group B match ending their chances of reaching the playoffs. 

Tunisia were simply quicker out of the blocks on Tuesday night at the Stade Hammadi Arebi, stunning Zambia with three first-half goals.

Tunisia midfielder Aïssa Laïdouni, who plays his club football with Hungarian side Ferencvaros, opened the scoring in the 18th minute. The Carthage Eagles then had another excellent opportunity to extend their lead, but Whabi Khazri’s penalty was saved by Nsabata. 

It was Nottingham Forest’s Mohamed Drager who did eventually double Tunisia’s lead 31 minutes in, before Ali Maaloul made it three just before the break.

This left Zambia with a mountain to climb to achieve qualification for Qatar 2022, as they needed to win by a two-goal margin to overhaul the goal difference between the two sides.

However, Chipolopolo were not disheartened by the magnitude of this task, and gave a much more spirited and credible performance in the second half. This display led to them scoring what turned out to only be a consolation goal, with Ranger striker Fashion Sakala following up his own penalty to tap in.

This at least compounded a positive international break personally for Sakala, who scored a hat-trick against Mauritania on Saturday. Despite not progressing to the play-off round of qualification, there are plenty of positives like this for Chipolopolo to take away from their recent international performances. 

Elsewhere in Group B, Equatorial Guinea needed a win, coupled with a Tunisia loss, to have a chance of progressing. In the end they weren’t even close, drawing 1-1 with Mauritania to finish second in the group, three points ahead of Zambia.