Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo in MARRAKECH, Morocco
IT was one 2025 Africa Cup of Nations group game which the Warriors should have won.
Probably even by a much wider margin.
But then Zimbabwe, who came into the game with their heads high despite a heartbreaking 2-1 last-gasp defeat by Egypt, conspired to fluff chance after chance while conceding easily.
In the end they could only settle for a 1-1 draw against an Angola team that was there for the taking.
That means they must now win their last group match against South Africa on Monday to progress to the Round of 16.
After losing their opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations to the Pharaohs last Monday, the Warriors needed to wrap this one up and walk into the tie against Bafana Bafana with less pressure.
They could have done that in perfect Marrakech weather before a raucous Zimbabwe crowd including the more than 200 fans who travelled from the United Kingdom to cheer them up.
But then Bill Antonio, Knowledge Musona, Jonah Fabisch, Prince Dube and substitutes Tawanda Chirewa and Ishmael Wadi all fell short when getting close opportunities to score. After the match, Antonio revealed how his teammates were on his case after failing to score a good chance three minutes into the game.
“Everyone in the dressing room was asking me the same question.
“For me, I’m a bit frustrated, but at the end of the day, for me to be in that position, I did a lot of good things.
“But now, at the end of the day, maybe I had the composure to be there, but maybe I needed extra composure to put the ball in the perfect position for me to just let go of the shot,” said Antonio.
“It’s now another working point that I have to perfect. Because at the end of the day, for me, I need to look at the video now.
“I’m also claiming that the ball was a bit behind me, but at the end of the day, some people have their own observations, but at the end of the day, I think, like I said, I take many positives.
“So, yeah, it was a great chance for us. If you look at the time I had, it was three minutes. And from there, you never know. Maybe it could have rained at both ends.”
“We wish to take the positives into the next game.”
It’s a match that even Angola captain Alfredo Ribeiro, who was voted the man-of-the-match admitted the Warriors were a difficult bundle to handle.
Alfredo who plays in the Turkish league, said, “Zimbabwe is a tough team, you know, they run a lot, they play a lot of competition, they have fast players in attack, you know, their game will be like this and they start to give us a little bit of trouble in this way, the left winger in the first half was good, a fast player, and also the guy coming inside was good.
“They also play long balls, you know, we tried to fight, but it was tough, physical, also mentally.”
After Zimbabwe conceded, they managed to fight back, veteran Musona expertly controlling a cross from the left and rolling the ball down the far right post on the stroke of half-time to draw his team level.
That means for the second time in six AFCON appearances, Zimbabwe just need to win their remaining match against South Africa to progress to the next round.
Under the new coach Marian “Mario’’ Marinica, who marked 34 days in charge yesterday, Zimbabwe have managed to score in every match including the two preparatory friendlies against Algeria and Qatar last month.
The Romanian gaffer said he will take the positives from yesterday’s match into Monday’s decisive match against Bafana Bafana.
