The Zambia U23 National Team snatched a vital away last-gasp draw against Sierra Leone on Saturday to finish 1-1 in their TotalEnergies U23 AFCON penultimate round qualifier played at SKD Stadium in Monrovia Liberia.
A penalty for each side in the second half settled the first leg of this see-saw contest in which Sierra Leone tried very hard to finish the game with a home win led by their lively forward John Kamara.
But Zambia did have great chances amid the Sierra Leone wave especially in the first half with Golden Mashata twice seeing his efforts going narrowly wide in the 2nd and 9th minutes.
Zambia goalkeeper Jeban Tembo then showed why he is a promising prospect with a superb save to keep out Emmanuel Samadia free kick in the 18th minute.
The first half ended scoreless but it took twelve minutes into the second half for the deadlock to be broken when Brian Musema brought down Kamara and the referee pointed to the spot.
Conteh then stepped up to convert the penalty.
A couple of reshuffles followed in the middle of the penalty when both Enock Sakala and Musema got injured and were replaced by Jimmy Mukeya and Andrew Phiri respectively.
But coach Osward Mutapa’s gambit was shifting Mashata to Musema’s position at right-back where he helped stabilize the backline and in the 84th minute even made a goal-line clearance.
And it was also Mashata who won the late penalty in the 88th minute after he made a telling overlapping run.
Joshua Mutale then stepped up to convert the spot-kick to give Zambia a critical away goal to take in their October 29 final leg at National Heroes Stadium.
Tickets for the match are on sale at K20 North, South Wings, K50 East, K100 West, K150 VIP and K1,000 VVIP at Webtickets Omega Mall, Northmead.
