Kings Kangwa played the role of supersub and delivered a glorious 30-yeard free kick winner for Zambia in an entertaining 2-1 victory over Comoros in 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying on Tuesday. Comoros forward El Fardou Ben gave the visitors the lead before Enock Mwepu’s volley leveled the match to set up Kangwa’s winner late on. The Chipolopolo move into second place in Group H behind Ivory Coast following the victory while Comoros are even on three points in third place.
It was a match that could have gone either way due to an excellent performance from Comoros goalkeeper Ali Ahamada and the threat Les Coelacanthes provided on the counter attack. The visitors struck first in the 13th minute when Zambia center back Tandi Mwape attempted to head a bouncing ball back towards his own goal, leading to a disastrous exchange that resulted in goalkeeper Toaster Nsabata spilling the ball to Comorian captain Ben. The striker made no mistake blasting his shot past a Zambian defender on the line to open the scoring.
Comoros keeper Ahamada then proceeded to repel several shot attempts from Zambia whose attack continued to look dangerous throughout. Chipolopolo finally got their reward in the final seconds of the first half when a weak corner kick to the near post was poorly cleared by the Comorian defense to Mwepu, who chested the ball down skillfully before striking his volley low through traffic past Ahamada for a massive momentum boost.
The visitors continued to look dangerous on the break with Rafidine Abdullah seeing his shot go just wide in the 55th minute after Saïd Bukari’s initial effort was blocked. Nsabata then did well to tip over an attempt from Faïz Selemani after the attacker fought his way into the Zambian penalty area.
However, the back and forth opportunities set the stage for Kangwa’s moment of glory in the 88th minute. Following a foul thirty yards out from the Comorian goal, the substitute stepped up and delivered a beautiful curling effort that was too much for Ahamada to handle and gave Zambia three crucial points following their opening match defeat to Ivory Coast.
Highlights from Lusaka are below.
