Zambia have arrived in Manzini ahead of Sunday’s 2018 CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Swaziland.
Chipolopolo took one hour flight from Johannesburg on Friday morning to Manzini after a four-day camp in South Africa that ended on Thursday.
The two sides clash a week after contrasting fortunes at the 2017 Cosafa Cup in South Africa that saw Zambia losing 3-1 in the final to Zimbabwe while Swaziland lost 2-1 to the latter in the quarterfinals.
“We are approaching CHAN differently from Cosafa and aware that Swizland will have a completely different team from the one we saw in Rustenburg,” Zambia assistant coach aggrey Chiyangi said upon arrival Mbabane on Friday.
“They will be strong but we are targeting to go through.”
Swaziland will have at least 10 players from Mbabane Swallows who missed the Cosafa Cup due to their 2017 CAF Champions League obligations.
Zambia too welcome five Zanaco and six Zesco United players in similar circumstances after they took care of their CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup beats respectively.
Meanwhile, Zambia and Swaziland will meet this Sunday in a first round, first match and play the decider on July 22 at National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.
Winner of the Zambia-Swaziland match face victor of the other first round qualifier in August involving Botswana and South Africa who meet in the first leg in Francistown this weekend.
August’s final round will see winner of the Zambia game away in the final round,first leg qualifier during the weekend of August 12 while the final leg will be played during the weekend of August 19.
Winner over both legs will qualify to the CHAN finals to be hosted by Kenya this January.
CHAN is a second tier AFCON exclusively for home-based national team players.
