Warriors of Zimbabwe head coach Michael Nees has said Bafana Bafana must earn the 2026 World Cup qualification ticket because his players will not do them any favours.
Already eliminated Zimbabwe will face Bafana Bafana in their penultimate Group C fixture today (Friday) in South Africa.
Bafana Bafana, who were earlier cruising in the group, dropped to second position after they were deducted three points by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player (Teboho Mokoena) against Lesotho on matchday 3.
Hugo Broos’ men must now beat Zimbabwe and Rwanda to be sure of picking the sole ticket to next year’s FIFA World Cup.
Aside Bafana Bafana, the likes of Nigeria’s Super Eagles, group leaders Benin Republic and Rwanda, are all still in the race to qualify.
Also Read: Our Players Are Ready To Make Our Nation Proud Against South Africa –Zimbabwe FA
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Nees stated that his players will approach the game with their neighbours with the seriousness it deserves.
“Four teams can still qualify and it’s their responsibility and again our prime motivation is to be proper footballers, sports men, fair competitors to all involve, to improve as a team, to not be accused of anything improper because also it’s a duty as I explained before, real competitor which is what the spectators also want and also South Africa.
“I think you want to qualify but deservedly so if you want to deserve your qualification you have to bring a good performance.”
By James Agberebi
3 Comments
For Zimbabwean coach coming out to say this means that’s exactly what they intend doing. That’s why they first opted to play the match outside South Africa and later changed their mind, which means South Africa is playing their last two games at home but I don’t blame them, I blame the set of super chickens we have now.
Not really. Botswana apparently told them it’s impossible to use their stadium twice in 24 hours so they had to resort to “comfort zone” SA because of logistics issues and FIFA deadline for choosing a stadium.
It’s remarkable though how CAF cancelled the use of the rugby pitch we played on against South Africa and chose a new ground for Lesotho for the final games.
That means NFF didn’t do their due diligence prior to that ill-fated game against South Africa.
Zimbabwe has nothing to lose though.
We should be concerned about winning our games well first because God might actually give us a third opportunity for redemption.
The redemption is still hush hush. CS is yet to explain the possibility though so I am not giving it a thought.
It’s about one of the 9 African Qualifiers groups not having 6 nations as the rest – the group Eritrea should have completed but were kicked out.
So, in order to create a balance, some points would have to be deducted from the top teams they got off bottom placed teams and so on.
I no understand but it should kick in after next weeks conclusion
Google:
How Alexander Isak’s Eritrea could influence Super Eagles’ World Cup ticket chase.
I am waiting for CS investigation first. We could as well keep dreaming
Does anyone notice that all the comments coming from Zimbabwe – their goalkeeper, players, coach, FA spokesman, etc – none is saying categorically that they’re going for a win?
No one said “We’re here to win”, like they did when they came to Nigeria. It’s “We’re hoping for a positive result”, “We’ll not do South Africa any favors”, “We’re playing for the pride,” “We want to use the game to prepare for Afcon.”
It seems to me that there’s a plan to do favors for SA. Anyway, it’s Rwanda that I’m really banking on.