Nigeria is too tough for Zambia-Renard

The Atlas Lions' gaffer has ruled out the possibility of Chipolopolo qualifying for their first World Cup owing to the quality of opposition in their group
Morocco head coach Herve Renard does not expect Zambia to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after being pooled together with Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria in group B.

Renard who led the Chipolopolo to their first ever Afcon victory is confident it will be a tough group but is keen to stress it will be difficult for Zambia to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in such a setting which has Africa's heavyweights.

The tactician while speaking in Zambia when he went to see his family, admitted that there are lots of talents in the South African country but it will definitely time for the them to be groomed and insisted that 2018 World Cup shouldn't be a priority.

“Zambia has had a lot of talent and will have talent for a long time to come. If you have to achieve something at international level, you need team spirit but we need to start a new process of rebuilding the national team,” Renard told the Post of Zambia.

“It will take some time. The next target should not be to qualify to the next World Cup.

“You need time to rebuild something very strong, build a strong team. People are sometimes not patient, but they should be patient; the talent is here, the skill is here too, so what we need is to start all over.

“I saw their (Chipolopolo) game against Nigeria and they played well in the second half but they were down 2-0 already.

“At international level, when you have teams like Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon, it’s very tough. People need to be calm because it will be very tough in the qualifiers.

“Zambia might do well but these teams are very tough, they are the three of the best big five teams in Africa…for Zambia, it’s too much.”

Zambia sit at the base of Group B with no point having lost their first qualifier at home to the Super Eagles.