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Sports Reporter
WARRIORS defender Patson Jaure believes the Chan experience will boost the Warriors’ confidence when they take on Tanzania in the first leg preliminary round qualifier for the Africa Cup of Nations in Dar-es-Salam this weekend. Jaure, who retains the captain’s arm-band in the absence of national team skipper Carlington Nyadombo, will lead his troops into the battle away from home looking for a win to give the team an upper hand ahead of the return leg.
“This game we want to take it very seriously we know them because we once played a friendly match with them and they are very good players. Some of them are foreign based players some play for TP Mazembe and some play in France so we must be strong going to play there. They really play well,” said Jaure.
The Dynamos defensive rock was one of the leading light in the Warriors’ terrific run when they reached the semi-finals of the Chan tournament in South Africa early this year.
Zimbabwe are set to go through a longer qualifying route as they were not seeded when the draw for the qualifiers was conducted.
Jaure said they are looking forward to a successful campaign as they have to go through elimination rounds before making the final group stage qualifiers. The bulk of the team called by coach Ian Gorowa comprise of the players who represented the nation at the Chan tournament.
“As players we are used to pressure and when we played at Chan no one believed that we could do well, people were saying we will lose but at least we proved to the nation that we are good players and going to Tanzania we just need to put 100 percent effort so that we beat them.
“We should not underestimate them thinking it’s a small team we just need to do our homework and beat them.
“Everyone knows that to get a place in the national team they needed to fight for it because we all did well at Chan. Those coming in now also want to prove a point. We just need to put all effort and that’s the most important in soccer,” said Jaure.
Gorowa yesterday said Jaure will remain the captain after Nyadombo was excluded from the squad because of injury.
“This game we want to take it very seriously we know them because we once played a friendly match with them and they are very good players. Some of them are foreign based players some play for TP Mazembe and some play in France so we must be strong going to play there.”
Online Reporter