Happy end for Kalaba

By Peter Auf der Heyde Feb 13, 2012, 3:51 GMT

Libreville - Zambian international Rainford Kalaba had an opportunity to go down in history as the player who won the Africa Cup of Nations for his country.

He failed, but as his team still secured an 8-7 penalty shoot-out victory against Ivory Coast, the TP Mazembe midfielder will not be all that concerned about his miss.

'It was just one of those unfortunate things,' he told dpa. 'It was supposed to be the winning goal. These things happen in football, but then you have to move on.

'You just have to forget about the past and concentrate on the future.'

He said that his team-mates came to comfort him after missing. 'We are like a unit. When I missed the penalty I knew that the guys would encourage me to forget what happened.'

The 25-year-old said that he was confident that they would still win. 'I had faith in our goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene that we would save a penalty and that we were still going to win.

'I have been dreaming about this wonderful moment. I have always wanted to achieve something and I knew we could do it because we have a great team with good players, very disciplined players.'

He said that the Chipolopolo were very confident going into the final. 'We came here to lift the cup and going into the final we did not think that we were going to lose to Ivory Coast.

'We respected them, they have good players. But I think based on the discipline and courage that we showed today, we deserved to be champions.'

Kalaba said that had Didier Drogba converted a penalty for his side in the 70th minute, it would have been difficult for them to come back.

'But when he missed it I thought that this could be our time.'

Kalaba said that the players were particularly pleased that the victory took place in Libreville, which 19 years earlier was the scene of Zambia's biggest footballing tragedy.

In 1993, a plane carrying the Zambian national team crashed into the sea after refueling in Libreville en route to Senegal for a World Cup qualifier.

All 30 people on board perished, amongst them 18 team members.

'We wanted to honour the players that died here, so that the families of the deceased players can feel much better and I am pleased we achieved that,' he said.

He added that he believed the victory would also help towards building unity in Zambia.

'I think this is a great thing for Zambia. I saw the two former presidents of the country here to come and watch the game and this is good for our country. The whole team will unite behind the team.'

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