adminTadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
THE last time Zimbabwe played Cameroon in a continental tournament was in 2004 when the Warriors made their maiden appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations football finals in Tunisia.
Grouped in the same pool along with North African giants Egypt and Algeria, the Warriors faced off against the Indomitable Lions in the second round of fixtures.
Boasting of stars like Eric Djemba-Djemba, Samuel Eto’o and Patrick Mboma, Cameroon soundly beat Zimbabwe 5-3 but the latter came out of that tie with their pride high up.
They had become the first team to score three goals past Cameroon in the AFCON finals, one of which, scored by Esrom Nyandoro, went on to be voted as the goal of the tournament.
A lot has changed and besides, this is a totally different tournament where players plying their trade in their respective domestic leagues are allowed to participate.
As the two face-off at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaounde this evening to open a 22-day long CHAN fiesta, Zimbabwe captain Ian Nekati says the Warriors won’t be looking at scoring any (insignificant) records but bag the maximum points.
“As the Warriors, we have had so many knocks in the run-up to this tournament but emotional and physical bruises are part of the game, what’s important is for us to defy all that,” said Nekati.
“This is the most important game in the campaign. We know that Cameroon are a big team in African football. We know they are the hosts but that’s where the respect ends.
“We are not in Cameroon for tourism. We are here to do business. Business of playing football… Playing football and getting results.
“We are not going to waste our time trying to figure out how good Cameroon is in the field of play. We are the Warriors and our business is to hunt down our opponents. Cameroon are in our way and we have to clear the way in 90 minutes,” Nekati said ahead of tonight’s crunch match against the host nation
The Chicken Inn defender challenged his teammates to rise to the occasion.
“Look, modern football demands great mental aptitude on the part of players. We all acknowledge the fact that we didn’t have the kind of preparations that we would have wanted. But I also understand because of the Covid-19 situation across the globe, no one really had ideal preparation for this tournament. In as far as we are concerned, we are at the same footing with Cameroon and there is definitely nothing special about them.
“We have talked about it as a team and as players only. There is nothing special about facing them in their own (lion’s) den.
“This is our first game of the campaign and it determines where we want to go. Our aim in the first place is to progress to the next round.
“We will do that by getting positive results, especially in this opening encounter against Cameroon.
“We are going to put our bodies on the wall and bombard them. That’s what we are here for. We have matured, especially in this tournament where our experience is even better than that of Cameroon.
“We will have to attack right from the start while keeping guard in position.”
Nekati said Zimbabwe should continue with their ruthless form in front of goal having scored 10 goals in four qualifying games where they conceded just two goals.
Although the chief striker of that qualifying campaign where Zimbabwe dumped Mauritius and Lesotho — Prince Dube — is no longer eligible to play in this tournament, having moved to Tanzanian club Azam, the Warriors still have good enough strikers in their fold in the form of Chicken Inn talisman Obriel Chirinda, Bulawayo Chiefs’ Farawo Matare and Harare City’s Thomas Chideu, who joined in as replacement to Tawanda Nyamandwe after the latter retained positive results for Covid-19.
Warriors coach Zdravko Logarusic has previously posted better results than his Cameroon counterpart, Martin Ndtoungou Mpile, who led the Indomitable Lions to the quarter-finals in Rwanda five years ago.
Before taking charge of Zimbabwe, Logarusic led Sudan to the semi-finals and has declared that he wants to better that showing this time around.
Cameroon have failed to break beyond the quarter-final stage of this tournament while Zimbabwe have a semi-final berth under their belt.
Better still for the Warriors is the fact that Cameroon’s current form is something that has been a source of worry for their coach.
They were part of the four-team pre-CHAN tournament involving Zambia, Niger and Uganda last week.
They lost to Uganda before playing out draws against Niger and Zambia.
Zimbabwe and Cameroon have met a total of 10 times with the West Africans bossing the Warriors, having won six times and lost thrice with a single game, a friendly fixture on January 10, 2017, having ended in a draw.
This will be the first time the two teams meet in a CHAN match.
Warriors Probable Line-up
Nelson Chadya, Ian Nekati, Qadr Amini, Patson Jaure, Peter Muduwa, Tatenda Tavengwa, Richard Hachiro, King Nadolo, Denver Mukamba, Wellington Taderera, Obriel Chirinda.
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