Kenya national football team coach Engin Firat has heaped praise on the Warriors and tipped the Zimbabwe national football team to do well at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Zimbabwe secured their spot in the finals with a game to spare, following an entertaining 1-1 draw against Firat’s side in South Africa on Friday.
Firat believes that the Warriors, who are under the tutelage of Michael Nees, a German coach, are in capable hands. He said:
Your coach is doing a really clever thing. He knows that Zimbabwe has a good defence and therefore he plays deep and goes for transition.
He has brought back Khama Billiat and now has a real playmaker who can keep the ball.
The team is now very competitive. If I look around they have players playing for good clubs in big leagues. This is a really strong team.
Even in our group Namibia has one point but in the World Cup qualifiers, they are second in their group.
So this group was very rough. This is the reality, Zimbabwe are going to the AFCON, and they have had really good results.
The football needed in Africa is fast transition and a very strong defence. I am sure Zimbabwe have a really good chance of going out of the groups something they have not achieved before. I think they have a very good chance this time.
Zimbabwe has never advanced beyond the group stage at the AFCON finals. Sunday Chidzambga (twice), Charles Mhlauri, Kalisto Pasuwa and Norman Mapeza all failed to lead the Warriors into the knockout stages at AFCON.
Nees became the second foreign coach to lead the Warriors to AFCON qualification, following in the footsteps of Croatian Zdravko Logarusic, who achieved the same feat in 2021.
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