Andrea Cristoforetti’s charges will be in action at 19:00 hours CAT (Zambian Time) with the hosts Morocco taking on Angola at 22:00 hours in the other Group A fixture.
Zambia is participating at the continental showpiece for the third time with their first time being in 2008 where they were eliminated in the first round in Libya before finishing fourth at the 2016 edition in South Africa.
Zambia qualified after beating Mozambique 4-3 on aggregate in the qualifiers.
The Zambian team is looking to start their campaign on a high note with a tie against Ghana.
Cristoforetti is hoping for a good start at the tournament that sees the top two teams qualifying to the world cup.
“Our ambition is to fight for a position at the world cup, but that can only happen if we do the process which is this competition.There will be no world cup if we don’t play with the right attitude and right understanding of this game during the competition so for sure we need to win two games and seeing that Morocco will be really difficult we are left with the other two games; my final will be against Ghana then think about Morocco later” said the Italian gaffer during the pre-match Press Conference.
Skipper Chileshe Chota is upbeat about his side’s chances ahead of the tournament opener.
“We are not scared of any opponent we have not faced before, on my side and as a team, we are not intimidated by the name of the team, what we care about is what we are doing on the pitch”, said.
Zambia and Ghana have not played each other before but the West Africans who are competing for the second time were Runners up in 1996.
Ghana head coach Philip Boakye has placed a lot of respect on Zambia going into this evening’s match.
“Zambia is a very good team, they qualified from the playoff and I think they are a very good team, we are going to play with them as underdogs but we will see what will come off the pitch”, said Boakye.
Zambia is ranked 90th in the world and 7th in Africa while Ghana who are only bouncing to the continental showpiece after 28 years are currently not ranked.
The two teams are in Group A alongside Morocco and Angola while Group B has record winners Egypt, Libya, Namibia and Mauritania.
Top two teams in each group advance to the semifinals while the top 3 teams at the tournament qualify for the world cup to be held in Uzbekistan from September 14 to October 6, 2024.
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