Zimbabwe will play host to South Africa in the 2022 World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium in Harare on Friday evening; kick-off 13h00 GMT.
The Warriors have never qualified for the World Cup finals and they will be hoping to start their group D campaign with a victory when they face the much-fancied Bafana Bafana.
Zimbabwe go into the match with as many as 13 players unavailable due to strict UK Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Zdravko Logarusic, the Warriors coach, has to really on players from the African leagues with a boost coming from France-based duo of Marshal Munetsi and Tinotenda Kadewere.
Captain Knowledge Musona is also available for this emotionally-charged clash as both teams look to settle scores in their blockbuster collision.
“We have to win and set the tone for the next game in four days’ time,” said Musona.“We are playing at home, so we are expected to win.
“A good start will be good for us. So we are going to fight from the first minute and try to win the game. That will give us confidence going into the next game in Ethiopia and other games after,” Musona added.
Zimbabwe coach Lugarusic has a dream of guiding the Warriors to Qatar despite the Covid-19 restrictions that has blocked his key players from the Bafana clash.
“It’s wonderful for any coach to take part in the World Cup. I’ll be making all my experience and my footballing knowledge available to the country so we can achieve something amazing. Why can’t we go to the World Cup? If you don’t dream, you lose. The Zimbabwean people have a dream and I want to make it happen. That’s why we need to dream together and work together, so we can make it and play at the World Cup.”
The closest that the Warriors have ever come to making the World Cup finals was the qualifiers for USA 1994 when they lost their last match against Cameroon.
As for South Africa, this will be coach Hugo Broos first match in-charge and he will be looking for a solid start against Zimbabwe.
Broos has stressed the importance of avoiding defeat in their Group G opener and he seems aware of risk posed in facing a weakened Zimbabwe side.
“I don’t like to predict that we will win or that the score will be 2-1 or whatever, but the only thing I want and hope is that we have a good result in Zimbabwe,” said the 69-year-old.
“A draw in Zimbabwe will be a good result, it will give us confidence for the next game [against Ghana]. Because losing, especially with a heavy score, will not do the players’ confidence any good. I hope we will draw and we take it from there. But we will try to win, I am not saying we are going for a draw.”
South Africa will be without the services of Thibang Phete and Thabiso Kutumela whom their PCR (polymerase-chain reaction) test came back positive for Covid-19.
Zimbabwe and South Africa will be eyeing the three points at stake and hope to claim a slot at the top of the group table that also contains Ghana and Ethiopia who clash this evening.
