If I were there from the start, we would've easily qualified

Former Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojević believes that Zambia would have easily qualified for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations if he were in charge at the start of the competition.

Chipolopolo narrowly missed out on booking their place in next year’s Afcon in Cameroon after finishing third in Group H behind first-placed Algeria and second-placed Zimbabwe.

Zambia managed to secure a total of seven points after claiming two wins, one draw and suffering two defeats in six games in the group stages.

However, Sredojević says he is proud of what his team produced throughout the tournament after he took over the national team job and earned them seven points after former Aggrey Chiyangi conceded two defeats in the first two Group H qualifiers before he was sacked.

‘[I] proudly coached great football nation [the] Zambia Chipolopolo team, I took [the] job while on zero points from two matches,’ Sredojević wrote on his official Twitter page.

‘In [the] rescue mission of four matches we [earned] seven deserved points. [I’m] firmly convinced that if I was from the start of AFCON qualifiers campaign just concluded we would [have] easily qualified.’

Proudly coached great football nation ZAMBIA CHIPOLOPOLO team. Took job while on 0 points from 2matches. In rescue mission of 4 matches we were earning 7 deserved points. Firmly convinced that if I was from start of AFCON qualifiers campaign just concluded we would easily QUALIFY pic.twitter.com/x3WsGwk89L

— MICHOcoach-WOLF OF SERBIA (@michocoach) March 30, 2021