Speaking after the game, Lwandamina expressed happiness that unlike in the last game against Algeria, the players yesterday played for each other and cleaned up mistakes made by another.
“The difference was simply team work, today (Tuesday), they played for each other. The good thing is they are now bonding. It’s a young team and we continue working hard,” Lwandamina said.
This was after his charges scored a goal early in the first half and another in second half stoppage time.
Togo coach Patrice Neveu blamed the defeat on the early goal and some underhand methods he refused to name.
With this win, Zambia finally won a game at the 10th time of asking.
This win took Zambia into second place on the table with three points, one off leaders Algeria who earlier fought from two goals down to draw 2-2.
Meanwhile, the game lit-up right from the start with Albert Kangwa[n]da smacking home an unstoppable shot from inside the box in just the third minute after profiting from a second ball after David Hamansenya’s long throw-in was half-cleared to hand Zambia a dream start.
Zambia had another gilt-edge chance to double the lead but Kingstone Muthandwa skewed his shot off a Kangwa[n]da pass in the 20th minute with a power cut coming on immediately to halt play for almost 20 minutes and when play resumed, a clear cut chance was wasted on each end.
First was Togo’s Samsindin Oura seeing his shot whiz just wide of Willard Mwanza upright with Muthandwa heading wide off a Hamansenya cross.
The first half ended with Kangwa[n]da’s header coming off the frame of the post before the offside flag went up for the Chipolopolo to take the slender lead to the break.
The second-half started with Lwandamina benching Obino Chisala for Joseph Liteta before two injury-induced saw the introduction of Owen Tembo and Lameck Banda for Miguel Chaiwa and David Simukonda respectively.
The substitutions injected life into the game with Banda particularly threatening with Goalie Mwanza diving at full stretch to keep out a shot from Togo’s half in 75th minute while Zambia played with a man down as the referee used the new rule to keep an oncoming player out because of a yellow-card substitution.
As Zambia wound down the clock, Matthews Banda burst free on the right before delivering a cross for Eliya Mandanji to connect with aplomb four minutes into added time to deliver the three points.
