‘African teams could cause upsets in Qatar’

Bwalya is hopeful the performances of local coaches will see Africa treat their mentors with more respect

● Senegal and Morocco have the potential to make a dent in Europe’s domination of the Fifa World Cup in Qatar when they take on England and Spain in their round of 16 clashes, Zambian legend Kalusha Bwalya has warned.

Senegal face England tonight (9pm) while Morocco take on Spain on Tuesday (5pm).

The two were the only ones of the five African teams to advance out the group phase, compared to the eight sides out of Europe, three from the Americas, two Asian sides and Australia.

“I know that Spain and England are the favourites, maybe 70/30, but that does not mean we should not expect good things from our African teams,” he told the Sunday Times yesterday.

“I believe they will be in the game, these are matches they are both capable of pulling a surprise in. Morocco have an onform team that is high on confidence and we have seen in this tournament that teams have won matches with just 18% of possession.”

Bwalya, running the rule over Africa’s performance at the 2022 edition of the World Cup, believes the continent should be “grateful and proud” of the performances so far.

While he admitted the continent was

“far from where we want to be”, the former footballer said there were some positives to build on for the future.

Two teams advancing from the pool stage was a marked improvement from the last edition hosted by Russia in 2018 where all five were eliminated in the group phase.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing that we have two teams in the knockouts, we are heading in the right direction,” Bwalya said of the Teranga Lions and Atlas Lions reaching the knockout stage.

“We are in a positive state and we should be grateful and proud because our teams have generally played very positive football. And of course we have to celebrate what Senegal and Morocco have achieved so far.”

Bwalya had much praise for coaches Alilou Cisse of Senegal and Morocco’s Walid Regragui, who had made a strong case for African nations to stop overlooking local mentors by leading their countries to the knockout stages.

He singled out Regragui, who took over the team shortly before the World Cup commenced. “Regrarui has really impressed me. He has transformed Morocco into a very solid and attacking team and has got them playing with great confidence. Their victory over Belgium was a massive achievement because it was not by luck.”

He also had some good words for Cameroon’s Rigobert Song. “He also took over late and managed to get them four points at the tournament. The victory over Brazil may not have helped them progress, but it is something to be proud of because it was the first time Brazil lost to an African team at the World Cup.”

Bwalya was hopeful the performance of the local coaches is a step in the direction and will see Africa treat its coaches with more respect.

“One of the reasons African coaches have not done well in recent years is because our national federations often don’t treat them as they do European coaches. I have had the experience of coaching a national team and I know that we are often put under the microscope much more than the Europeans are.

“As an African coach, you are always under pressure and every match you take charge of feels like it could be your last,” said Bwalya, who also highlighted the efforts of the eliminated teams.

“Tunisia beating France was also a good thing, a confidence booster for the rest of the continent to start believing we can beat these top European teams.”

He was disappointed by Ghana’s failure to progress after the Black Stars lost 2-0 to Uruguay in their last group match, having previously given themselves a chance with victory over South Korea. “I think they could have done better given the strength of their squad. But that’s football.”

In general, though, Bwalya believes all five African countries gave a good account of themselves. “This was a World Cup of underdogs in some ways because we saw how smaller countries such as Canada and Saudi Arabia managed to scrap it out with the so-called big teams.

“And the African teams were not left behind because all of them managed to make their matches into contests even though three of them did not get to the knockout stage.”

He felt Cameroon would have taken more out of their drawn clash with Serbia had it not been for some naive defending.

He, however, liked the fact that the African teams were not afraid to take the game to their opposition, even though it sometimes meant they were left vulnerable to counterattacks.

Ghana and Senegal were guilty of this in their defeats to Portugal and the Netherlands, respectively, the African teams having held their own against their revered opponents only to fail to hold on at crucial times.

Two African teams in the last-16. Now for the quarterfinals.

I think it’ sa wonderful thing that we have two teams in the knockouts, we are heading in the right direction

Kalusha Bwalya Zambian legend