Israel didn’t make it easy but two late goals gave the Blue & White a 4-2 victory over Zambia in friendly action at the Moshava Stadium. Head coach Alon Hazan’s squad took a two-goal lead lead into halftime but a pair of defensive breakdowns allowed the visitors to draw even at 2-2 in the second half. But a late own goal and an Itamar Shviro strike in injury time gave the hosts the win.

Ramzi Safouri had chances a plenty early on for Israel, while Patson Daka countered with opportunities for Zambia, but it was Tai Baribo who finished off a nice team play as the striker put away a Dean David ball for a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute. Just a minute later, David himself found the back of the goal as he nodded home a corner kick by the far post to double the score.

However, Zambia kept pushing and cut the lead when Kings Kangwa stripped the ball from Neta Lavi and put it into the goal in the 55th minute while 12 minutes later Larry Bwalya headed the ball with authority right by Omri Glazer to know the score up at 2-2.

But Israel wasn’t done yet as Dan Glazer’s scorcher glanced off of Emmanuel Banda and into the net for an own goal in the 89th minute while Itamar Shviro took a brilliant Gaby Kanichowsky through ball and put it away in injury time to take the victory.

“This was a friendly game to see what we need to improve and do better,” Hazan said after the game. “I could understand that the players were getting tired and that we need some work on the defensive side. I’ll take the good things as well as what needs to be worked on. We paid the price on some of our mistakes.”

“We wanted to play a good game,” Eli Dasa began. “There are things for us to improve which is why we have these games. We shouldn’t have given up a pair of goals and we had to step on the gas to finish off the game. Zambia have some quality players who are in top leagues and these games are great for us to work on things as a team. I have to take off my hat to all of the fans that were here for this game.”