Alex Samanyanga
Zimbabwe’s Warriors yesterday lost the battle of the Zimbezi when they fell to Zambia’s Chipolopolo last night at the National sports stadium.
The Warriors lost by two goals to nil.
Partson Dhaka the red-hot Salzburg striker scored all goals for Zambia.
The results are a wakeup call for Coach Zdravko Logarusic on what awaits him in Cameroon next year.
Warriors rested most of their senior players for different reasons.
Ovidy Karuru was the only regular Warriors player on the field.
Zambia did not take any chances and fielded their full squad that drew with Algeria last Thursday.
The match started on a slow pace with the visitors dominating the possession. Warriors defends was the busiest department as they failed to contain the gangly strikers of Patson Dhaka and Enoch Mwepu who caused all sorts of problems.
Zambia found the opener in the 20 minutes after defender Aleck Mudimu failed to clear a simple cross and the ball went into the path of Dhaka who slotted past a helpless goalkeeper and debutant Martin Mapisa.
The Warriors midfield was disjointed with only Tafadzwa Rusike visible in the department.
Enoch Mwepu the Chipolopolo striker found himself face to face with the goal keeper in the 48th minute with the keeper already beaten his shot went wide.
The visitors also had a disallowed goal for offside.
Coach Logarusic tried to change tactics by bringing in Kuda Mahachi for Evans Rusike in the 75th but still the Supersport player struggled to fit in.
Zambia scored the second after Dhaka was left unmarked by Warriors defenders.
He received a cross from the right after a loss of concentration by the Warriors defense and hit the roof net.
The warriors coach conceded that it was a tough match but he really needed to give new players a chance to prove themselves.
“It’s disappointing but I had to give some of these players a chance to prove themselves.
“I really needed to assess some of them and I now have an idea of their strengths and weaknesses,” Logarusic said.
He added; “It was a tough match and we have picked some positives from it though. The most important thing is that we managed to qualify for the AFCON and we take it from there.”
With the results, Zimbabwe finished the Afcon qualification campaign with eight points while Zambia are on seven.
On the continent, our opponents are going to be strong and we should show squad depth.
If we continue losing important matches, and are unable to respect matches because we would have already qualified, we run the risk of preserving our already terrible record at Afcon.
Zimbabwe in all the five times it has played at the Africa Cup of Nations, it has not gone beyond the first group stages.
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