Zambia to play Zimbabwe in football friendly

The Zambian national team pose for a photo at their Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) final football match against Ivory Coast at stade deI’Amite in Libreville, Gabon

Lusaka (Zambia) - Zambia will host neighbours Zimbabwe in an international football friendly next month to test the flood lights at its newly-built ultra modern stadium.

The match, to be played Aug 8, will be played at night in order to test the lighting at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium situated in Ndola city in the Copperbelt province. The 40,000 capacity stadium was built with the assistance of the Chinese government, reports Xinhua.

“It is the first time a game will be played at night at our new stadium. We want to see how the flood lights will work and we have picked Zimbabwe because we believe they will provide tough opposition,” Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) spokesperson Erick Mwanza said.

The African champions will, however, feature local players in order to help coach Herve Renard prepare a team for the African Nations Championship qualifiers, which only features locally-based players.