Nkana and Napsa Stars are both hoping for positive starts on Wednesday night in their respective North African dates on match-day-one of the 2020/2021 CAF Confederation Cup group stage.
Nkana are in Egypt while Napsa are in Morocco and both play the two 2019/2020 CAF Confederation Cup finalist.
In Egypt, Nkana kick off their Group D campaign in Cairo against ambitious Pyramids who beat Zanaco 3-0 in Lusaka but lost 1-0 in Egypt in last season’s quarterfinals.
But Kelvin Kaindu’s side heads into the continental date winless in their last three competitive games since February 14 when they beat Tihad Casablanca 2-0 in Kitwe in their pre-group stage first leg date.
Furthermore, Nkana are also winless away against Egyptian opposition in all visits dating back over 35 years.
“Yes, it is quite a difficult record but I strongly believe that if we have the right mentality we can definitely stand strong and hopefully pick up a point,”Kaindu said.
Meanwhile, in Berkane, Napsa make their debut trip to North Africa after an unbeaten start in the preliminary stages that took them from Comoros to Mozambique and later Kenya before becoming the first Zambian club to qualify to the continental group stage on the first attempt.
Napsa play their Group B fixture against defending CAF Confederation Cup champions RS Berkane.
“The game is a tough, we are playing the current champions in this competition the Confederation Cup but every game is a different, it is a different story and we will try to make history for our club and country and we are working hard to get a positive result,” Napsa’s Egyptian-born coach Mohamed Fathi said.
Berkane also have a Zanaco connection from last season after meeting the latter in the group stages where they drew 1-1 at home and away.
