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Tadious Manyepo, Sports Reporter
VERSATILE Zimbabwe international Jordan Zemura hopes to take the new-found mojo with which he plays at his Serie A side Udinese into the senior national team.
Zemura is playing with a lot of confidence for a massively transformed Italian outfit that is playing well under Luca Gotti and have made an early claim for one of the Serie A UEFA Champions League slots.
The “White and Blacks” are a much-changed outfit from the team that battled relegation for the better part of last season.
And Zemura is proving to be a key part of the puzzle with the Zimbabwean playing significant roles for the Udine side.
On Saturday night he scored a stunning free-kick that proved to be the difference in Udinese’s 1-0 victory over Lecce at the Dacia Arena.
That means Zemura became the first Udinese player in two years to score directly from a free-kick since Gerard Deulofeu in October 2022.
His overall performance in which he cluttered crucial interceptions and won several duels along with near flawless passing earned him the Man-of-the-Match accolade.
Zemura, however, has little time to celebrate the Udinese triumph.
He is heading straight to South Africa where his services will be needed when Zimbabwe plays Namibia in back-to-back 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Namibia.
The two Southern African nations without approved stadiums to stage international matches will swap hosting duties at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.
Namibia first entertains the Warriors on Thursday at 3pm before Zimbabwe returns the favour with a 6pm date with the Brave Warriors on Monday next week.
Zemura is yet to score for the Warriors in eight appearances but coach Michael Nees will no doubt be pleased to have one of his players coming into camp on the back of fine form.
“I am hoping to carry the same energy that I am putting for my team into the national team,” Zemura said.
“I have been practicing a lot of free-kicks and I also scored five in training last week, I think that’s why the coach trusted me with taking set pieces.
“I am happy to have managed to score my first goal of the season and see it win the match especially given we were coming from a 3-0 defeat against AC Milan the last time out,” said Zemura.
“I am grateful and I am hoping that I can take the same form that I am in, to the national team.
“Namibia is a good team and they have several good players who can compete.
“But I think we are all ready for the games,” he added. Zemura, just like all other foreign-based players, is expected to arrive in South Africa this morning after leaving his base yesterday.
He got some time to visit his family in England from where he was scheduled to connect to Johannesburg.
The locally-based Warriors together with the technical team led by Nees were scheduled to leave yesterday evening.
The 23-year-old Zemura believes Zimbabwe stands a very good chance to beat Namibia in both games.
“I think we have a good team with so much balance to get all the points against Namibia.
“We should go out there with a lot of self-belief and play with the hunger that we showed in our opening two games against Kenya and Cameroon last month”.
He is also aware of the potential banana skin that the Brave Warriors could be to their Nations Cup quest.
“We need to pay a lot of attention in these games because they will determine whether we retain a chance of making it to the final tournament or not.
“We have always been talking to each other as players about the need to stay focused and make things happen.
“We have a bit of knowledge about Namibia and I am sure we can use all that to try and dismantle them.
“These are two crucial games that we need to win and we will be in a good space to qualify for Morocco 2025.”
While Zimbabwe and Namibia will be battling in South Africa, Kenya, and Cameroon, the other teams in Group J will play in their back-to-back fixtures during the same break.
The two teams lead the standings by four points each after drawing against the Warriors and beating Namibia.
Zimbabwe are on two points after two draws while Namibia have no points after losing their first two qualifiers.
Online Reporter