To do this, the coach of the DRC, Sébastien Desabre, accompanied by captain Chancel Mbemba, were at a pre-match press conference this Tuesday, January 16th. The French technician showed restraint in his address to the media. "This is the first game in an important competition like this one. We are going in with the ambition to continue what we've been working on for more than a year. The reality is that the DRC was not present at the last AFCON for certain reasons. I took over the team when it had two losses in the qualifiers for this AFCON. As a coach, I'm very excited to see how my team will perform in this competition," declared Sébastien Desabre.
For his part, the captain of the Leopards, Chancel Mbemba, who is at his fifth AFCON with the Congolese team, acknowledged that it was purely by grace. Speaking in Lingala, Chancel Mbemba also expressed regret that many Congolese do not believe in their team for this AFCON, before admitting that the Congolese players consider the three group stage matches as respective finals.
The DRC faces Zambia at 9 PM, Kinshasa time (GMT+1) at the
Laurent Pokou Stadium (20,000 seats) located in the city of San Pedro.
Zambia, the AFCON champions in 2012, are back in the final stage after missing three editions (2017, 2019, and 2022). Zambia, like the DRC, did not participate in Cameroon in 2022.
The 34th AFCON kicked off on Saturday, January 13th. There have been quite a few surprises since then. Notable events include Ghana's loss to Cape Verde, the draw between Egypt and Mozambique, and the one between Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.
Joseph Bahati