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Sports Reporter
WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa was left disappointed last night as he felt Zimbabwe blew a golden chance to reach a dream African Nations Championships final by failing to take their opportunities during regulation time. The Warriors were back to their usual habit of missing chances in normal time and yesterday they failed to punish a hugely defensive Libyan outfit and in the end, they were made to pay dearly for their wastefulness.
And as was the case in matches against Morocco and Uganda in the group stages, the Warriors were the better side on the night but their goal-scoring shortcomings were brutally exposed as they allowed Libya to hang on for 120minutes and force the semi-final tie into penalties.
With Libya coach Javier Clement conceding that the Warriors were the better side, Gorowa was justifiably left with a sour taste in the mouth as his quest for a first ever gold medal in continental football went up in smoke.
“We are obviously disappointed that we lost the match having played the way we did. I think we shouldn’t have allowed it to go to the shoot-out.
“We had so much possession and had a couple of clear cut chances which we failed to convert and it summed up our night,” said Gorowa, who should still hold his head high having defied odds by leading the Warriors to their first ever continental semi-final berth.
The Libyans never really threatened, with the few occasions that they ventured upfront, they found skipper Partson Jaure and his defence impenetrable.
Having scored three goals in the last two games prior to the semi-final duel, Gorowa thought the Warriors had now found their scoring touch.
The Warriors gaffer will obviously point the team’s striking frailties as the biggest undoing rather than a formidable opposition.
“They never threatened us but were just organised in defence so they ended up frustrating us. But after scoring once against Uganda and then twice against Mali, I thought we were slowly doing right in striking positions but we failed.
“We have also been practicing spot kicks, not just for this match but even in group stages. The conversion rate might have been up at training but in game situations it becomes a bit challenging because it comes with a lot of pressure,” said Gorowa.
The Warriors coach would not be drawn into blaming Ethiopian referee Bamlak Tessema Weyesa for disallowing a 77th minute volley by substitute Simba Sithole (Dynamos) saying he believes “the referee made the right call but I would still need to watch it again’’.
Clement even in his hour of coronation, was sportingly full of praise for the losing semi-finalists and said “the better team had been booted out’’.
“I am very happy that we are now in the final but there is no doubt that Zimbabwe were the better team and ordinarily should have won this match.
“They have a very talented team with very technical players like number 13, 5, 10 (Peter Moyo, Hardlife Zvirekwi and Kudakwashe Mahachi). Number 19 (Simba Sithole) who was taken off also did very well,” said Clement.
All hope is not lost for the Warriors, however, and they will now need to regroup and prepare for the third place play off against the loser between Nigeria and Ghana.
That match will precede the CHAN final at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
Online Reporter