Renard hails special significance of Zambia triumph

Zambia won the African Nations Cup on penalties for the first time in Gabon, where their team had died in a plane crash 20 years ago.

“They found the strength, I don’t know where,” he said. “There is something written somewhere. It just felt right but it was not because of me, I don’t know where it came from. We were talking about it right from the time we started our preparations on 28 December.

“I told them if we got to the final we would play in Gabon where the plane crashed and our first match was against Senegal, where the team was headed to play. There was a special significance in that.”