From SHAMAOMA MUSONDA
in Kigali –
MALI coach Djibril Drame says tomorrow’s game against Zambia will be war as his side seeks to qualify to the quarter finals of the Rwanda 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament ahead of rivals Uganda.
Drame said in an interview here yesterday that he understands the game against Zambia will not be a walk in the park and that his boys will have to fight hard to stay in the tournament.
“It will be a tough game, it will be like a war because we want to qualify and we know that Uganda also wants to qualify. It certainly will not be a walk in the park for either team,” he said.
The Chipolopolo, already through to the quarterfinals, play the Eagles at the Stade de Kigali in Nyamirongo Township in a 16:00 hours kick off same as Uganda who face Zimbabwe at Amahoro.
The Chipolopolo top the group with six points followed by Mali on four points with Uganda on one point, while Zimbabwe are without a point heading into the final group matches.
Drame said he had analysed the Chipolopolo and understands the quality in the team and that he has the right material to counter Zambia’s challenge.
“We have seen Zambia and seen that they have a lot of quality but we have good quality too. We are ready for the challenge but we really want to qualify to the quarter finals and progress furthest in the tournament,” he said.
Mali captain Assoko Marius was more bullish in his talk, saying there was nothing new about Zambia and that they had dealt with such teams before and they knew exactly what was needed in the final group match.
Meanwhile, Chipolopolo midfielder Salulani Phiri has been ruled out of tomorrow’s game with a hip injury.The Zanaco player sat out of training yesterday, with Chipolopolo team doctor Joseph Kabungo saying there was some pain on his upper part of  the hip.
“Salulani is still in some pain and he is not training I should say he is out of Wednesday’s match, it’s a soft tissue injury. He is the only player out with the rest of the team all fine,” Kabungo said after the team trained on the astro-turf of Mumena Stadium yesterday.
Phiri limped out of the Chipolopolo’s win over Uganda after 39 minutes.
Kabungo said that his medical team will continue to monitor the fitness of Phiri, who starred in Zambia’s opening group match win over Zimbabwe and was voted man-of-the-match.
But there was good news concerning Buchizya Mfune as the defender was in full-contact training with rest of team yesterday.
“Buchizya has fully recovered; he has done extremely well in the last 72 hours and is available for selection. Otherwise, all is well in camp,” Kabungo said.
Mfune was a last minute exclusion from the Zambian starting line up against Uganda and was replaced by Christopher Munthali after the player was reported to have suffered a throat infection.