Avram Grant's children: what is known about the Zambian national team that Russia will play against

This week, the Russian national football team completes the March game cycle with the second friendly match. After defeating the Grenada national team (5:0) on March 19 at VTB Arena, with a record goal by Artyom Dzyuba, on March 25, Valery Karpin's team will host a more serious opponent at the same stadium — the Zambian national team. Read more about the upcoming vis—a-vis, the condition of our guys and the lineups in the Izvestia article.

What is known about the Zambian national team

The Zambian national team was once among the top 15 strongest teams in the world. And it's not a joke. It was in February, May and August 1996. They can only dream of it now. At the moment, the Zambian national team is 87th in the FIFA rankings. At the same time, they are higher than, for example, the national teams of Luxembourg, Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan. So you definitely shouldn't underestimate Africans. And even though Zambia has never participated in the World Championships, they have something to brag about on the African continent.

In the 21st century, the Zambian national team participated in nine of the 13 African Cup of Nations draws. In 2010, they reached the quarterfinals, and at the next tournament, in 2012, they became champions, beating the Ivory Coast national team in the final in a penalty shootout. At the current African Cup of Nations in January-February 2024, Zambia failed to get out of the group with Morocco, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, showing the worst result among the third-place teams in their respective quarters.

The Zambian national team is currently undergoing African selection for the 2026 World Cup. However, they don't have many chances to reach the final stage. After the withdrawal of the Eritrean national team from the tournament and the suspension of the Republic of the Congo national team due to third-party interference in the organization's affairs, the Zambian national team is essentially last in the standings, losing three points to Niger and Tanzania, and nine to the leading Morocco.

Partly due to the disqualification of the Congo national team, the Zambians had a "window" to come to Russia. And they are probably very happy about this, given that the Russian national team may not be inferior in terms of level to Morocco, which Zambia has yet to play in September.

In the last official match at the moment, Zambia beat the Sierra Leone national team (2:0) as part of the selection for the African Cup of Nations. Among the players who played for the Zambian national team at that time, the most famous (and most expensive, according to the Transfermarkt portal, €2.5 million) was the 25–year–old central midfielder of the Israeli Hapoel Beer Sheva Kings Kangwa. And Russia is not a foreign country for him. Kangwa spent three whole years, from 2019 to 2022, at Arsenal Tula, for which he played in 55 matches (in the RPL and the Russian Cup), scored six goals and provided nine assists.

The most stellar representative of the Zambian national team at the moment is 26—year-old Leicester central striker from the English Premier League Patson Daka, whom Transfermarkt estimates at 12 million euros. Daka has already played 35 matches for his national team, scoring 12 goals, but the last time he wore the jersey of the national team was in June 2024, in the matches of the African selection for the World Cup against the national teams of Morocco and Tanzania. Daka missed the autumn selection session for the African Cup of Nations due to an ankle injury, and was not included in the application for the November matches with Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone.

The Zambian national team is also headed by a well—known specialist, Avram Grant. During his coaching career, the 70-year-old Israeli worked not just anywhere, but at Chelsea in London, with whom he became vice-champion of England and a finalist in the Champions League in 2008 (the match was held in the capital's Luzhniki Stadium). After Chelsea, Grant stayed in England for a while, working with Portsmouth and West Ham, and then went to Serbia, where he won the local championship with Partizan.

Among the national teams, in addition to Zambia, Grant coached his native Israel, as well as Ghana.

What to expect from the Russian national team

Artyom Dzyuba, who has already fulfilled his main mission by breaking Alexander Kerzhakov's record for goals for the national team, will definitely not take part in the match with the Zambian national team. Also, in the context of a large rotation of the squad, the head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, "unhooked" two more players who came out from the first minutes for the match against Grenada, we are talking about defender Alexander Soldatenkov and midfielder Daniil Fomin.

A little later, information appeared about another pair of "eliminated": striker Ivan Sergeev and his namesake, midfielder Oblyakov. According to Vladimir Khaytin, the chief physician of the Russian national team, Sergeev and Oblyakov returned to their clubs "due to the high risk of exacerbation of chronic overload after performing therapeutic and preventive measures with positive dynamics." In other words, they didn't overload the players to avoid the risk of injury. Besides, there are enough players in the national team — we will see a lot of new combinations in the match against Zambia.

Anyway, the current level of the Russian national team players, even taking into account those who have left the location, gives reason to predict another defeat. Although, for sure, the Zambian national team will put up a little more resistance than the rivals from Grenada.

— The level of Zambia? A good opponent, we looked at two theories, good football players. It won't be easy," said Maxim Osipenko, defender of Rostov and the Russian national team.

Spartak goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko will play from the first minutes of the match against Zambia, said goalkeeper coach Vitaly Kafanov.