By KALUMIANA KALUMIANA in Rabat, Morocco –
ZESCO United on Monday outwitted Wydad Casablanca in their mind games when the hosts said they could only help them with an artificial pitch to train on.
Senior Zesco officials scaled Rabat for most of Monday to find a grass pitch to train on to suit the surface conditions of this evening’s CAF Champions League Group A clash against Wydad.
Zesco vice-chairperson Dennis Banda together with club treasurer Joel Nkhata and translator John Mwenya finally managed to secure a training venue late on Monday afternoon with FUS Rabat who had just toppled Wydad as Moroccan champions in the just-ended 2015/2016 season while the latter finished as runners-up.
George Lwandamina’s team later held their full training for one hour under a light drizzle at FUS Rabat’s training base at midnight Zambian time on Monday.
Banda said in an interview here yesterday morning after Zesco’s midnight training session that Wydad were clearly trying to frustrate the Zambian champions.
“You can’t run away from mind games from our opponents because from the first instance they told us there are no pitches with natural grass, until we had to go to the other club that is based here in Rabat and they are the people who said they have three pitches and that if we could pay for one of them, then well and good.
“But our opponents had clearly told us there were no grass pitches and gave us only an artificial pitch,” Banda said.
Zesco had initially held a light workout upon arrival on Sunday on an artificial pitch at Stade Ahmed Achhoud.
By press time yesterday, Zesco held their final mandatory one hour training session at the match venue Stade Prince Moulay Abdallah.