By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA and SANDRA MWILA –
THE victorious Chipolopolo arrived back home yesterday with the players setting the target of winning the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) final to be held in Rwanda from January 16 to February 7.

•CHIPOLOPOLO players Festus Mbewe (left), Salulani Phiri and Winston Kalengo on arrival at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka yesterday from Mozambique, where they drew 1-l with the Mambas to qualify to the 2016 CHAN finals via a 4-1 aggregate. Picture by SANDRA MWILA

Striker Winston Kalengo said the team is capable of winning the CHAN trophy and that the team has set a target of going beyond the semi-finals and lifting the trophy.
Kalengo said in an interview at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport that the team has talent and capable of winning the CHAN if they work hard and double their efforts from the qualifiers.
“It is a great feeling to qualify to the CHAN tournament after a long time but if we work hard we can lift the trophy. The last time we appeared at the tournament we reached the semi-finals and we have to go beyond that level,” he said.
Asked whether Zambians should expect more goals from him, Kalengo said a duty of a striker is to score and that with God’s grace it will be possible.
“I will surely score goals in Rwanda, that is a duty of a striker and I have been doing it through the grace of God and anyone can do it, this time it was Festus Mbewe who did it for us,” he said.
‘Chicken’ George Lwandamina said he has a team that is capable of competing favourably at the CHAN tournament. Lwandamina said the team will not work under pressure as they prepare for the CHAN tournament because they might make mistakes.
“We have enough depth in the local national team and that will help us to compete favourably at the CHAN tournament. We need to do our best to maintain the integrity of our country.
We will not work under pressure as we prepare for CHAN because if we do so, we will make mistakes, we need to be composed to do a great job,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sports Deputy Minister Ronald Chitotela has hailed the Chipolopolo for qualifying to the CHAN finals as this was a sign of the growing team about to take on the world.
Chitotela, who travelled to Maputo to cheer the team, said that despite the game against Mozambique ending in a draw, the fact that Zambia  qualified to CHAN was sweet.
“This was a sweet outing though it was a draw away in Mozambique. This is a clear Indication that we have a growing team, we have a lot of young and promising players, boys like (Conlyde) Luchanga and (Spenser) Sautu. This tells us that the future is very bright,” he said.
Chitotela immediately declared Government’s continued support to the team adding that, the team’s progress is what the Ministry of Sports wanted to see.
He told Lwandamina to keep up with the good job and bring more good result to Zambia.
In response, Lwandamina thanked Government for being on his team’s side before he praised his boys for playing a game professionally in seeing off Mozambique.
“We knew they would come at us and dominate possession but we were comfortable with it as they kept wasting their time. The boys followed the instructions to the latter I am really happy with them,” he said.