Zambia coach Avram Grant urges focus amid preparations, eyes crucial wins in World Cup qualifiers

Zambia’s national football team manager Avram Grant has called for focus and resilience as his squad prepares for the decisive Group E matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Speaking at a pre-game press conference ahead of Zambia’s match against Tanzania on October 8th, Grant highlighted the team’s challenging circumstances, including limited preparation time and a travel-heavy week for several key players.

“We are still in the middle of preparation as you know the international week just started and the game is tomorrow. We have players from Zambia and we have players from other places so they played two days ago they fly and arrived early this morning. We don’t have time to train but we want to win this game. I don’t know if we have a chance but we have a chance to be second place. We need to win these two games because Tanzania against Niger and we do our best,” Grant stated.

Zambia currently sits fourth in Group E with six points from six matches. Their upcoming fixtures, against Tanzania and Niger, are critical for their qualification hopes. Grant emphasized the winning mentality he has fostered within the squad, urging his players to focus on each match rather than the permutations of group standings.

“We don’t calculate after so it is part of the winning mentality. We did a good process in Zambia for two and a half years, we qualified two times to African [Cup of Nations]. I don’t like this one but we had bad luck in the qualification to the World Cup. We wanted to qualify for the first time in the history of Zambia, but if we continue this process Zambia will qualify for sure. But for the moment we have two tough games. We need to concentrate about this game and try to win and then you can make any calculation that you want,” Grant reflected.