Chronicle Editor
Sports Reporter
WARRIORS coach Michael Nees appears a content man after his Warriors drew his opening two matches of the Group J of the Afcon qualifiers in the last week.
Zimbabwe opened their quest for a place in Morocco with a goalless draw against Kenya last Friday before settling for the same scoreline with giants Cameroon on Tuesday.
Both games were played at Nelson Mandela National Stadium in Kampala, Uganda with Kenya the home team last week and the Warriors hosting the Indomitable Lions on Tuesday.
The Harambee Stars and the Warriors do not have approved stadia to play host to international games in their respective countries and they opted to play in Uganda.
Zimbabwe are the fourth seed in the four-team Group J that also has Namibia. But Nees’ men refused to be second best in both games, playing with so much aplomb and they could have easily won those matches with a bit of luck.
While they laboured on in the first tie against Kenya, Zimbabwe bossed their more illustrious opponents Cameroon on Tuesday, restricting them in every aspect so much that the Indomitable Lions failed to test veteran goalkeeper Washington Arubi in the entire game.
He hailed his charges for a confident display and much improved quality. “I think this was a 0-0 of better quality. It was a good game of good performance and good scoring chances,” he said of Tuesday’s game.
Both teams really tried to play football. We never set back but continued to go forward. Our level of confidence on the ball is improving. We had some very good combinations under pressure,” he said.
Nees revealed that he had told his players to expect some hard time against the five-time African champions not less as they were facing the Goliath on neutral venue.
Online Reporter