Ramatsiyi Moholoa

Ramatsiyi Moholoa

TAMALE - Zambia insist they will still qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations knockout stages despite suffering a 5-1 drubbing by Cameroon.

Saturday night's humiliating defeat by the Indomitable Lions at Kumasi Stadium was hard on Chipolopolo who walloped Sudan 3-0 in their opening fixture on Wednesday.

For Cameroon, the win has revived their hopes of being among the two countries from Group C to go through to the next round.

This was after Sameul Eto'o and company were defeated 4-2 by defending champions Egypt in their opening match on Wednesday.

Zambia are now the second southern Africa country to lose 5-1 in the group stages after the Brave Warriors of Namibia were thumped by the same margin by the Atlas Lions of Morocco.

Patrick Phiri, Zambia's coach, was devastated by the loss to Cameroon in a game where their defence looked badly disorganised.

Phiri said they will do everything to become the first country in their group to hand the Pharaohs of Egypt their first defeat of the tournament on Wednesday.

"Our dream of reaching the knockout stages lives on."

Ponga Liwewe, a top Zambian journalist based in South Africa, said: "The scoreline was a bit of a surprise. The amateurish display by our defence was unbelievable and cost us dearly in this game."

Liwewe said Zambia should follow South Africa's footsteps of employing a foreign coach to guide them in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

l Egypt beat Sudan 3-0.