Warriors Vice Captain Karuru Up-beat Ahead Of AFCON Matches

Warriors Vice-Captain, Ovidy Karuru, has expressed optimism ahead of the Zimbabwe vs Botswana Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier match scheduled to be played at the Obedi Chilume Stadium in Francistown this evening.

Karuru said despite the absence of some experienced players including Khama Billiat, Tino Kadewere, Marvelous Nakamba, and Marshall Munetsi, the Warriors still have a high chance of winning the match and proceed to the AFCON finals. He said:

We are ready and we will do everything to get a positive result. Some of the players did not come because of different reasons but we feel the squad is still strong enough to get a good result.

Karuru is one of the Zimbabwean players who have been in impressive form for their clubs lately and fans are saying Zimbabwe has a chance to do well if he replicates his form at the club.

Zimbabwe is at position 2 in Group H which is topped by Algeria and would qualify to the next round of the competition if they win against Botswana while Zambia fails to beat the log leaders.

Algeria who have since qualified for next year’s AFCON finals will be without some of their key players including Machester City star Riyad Mahrez.

The Warriors left Harare for Johannesburg yesterday before connecting to Francistown and arrived shortly before midnight after some delays at Francistown international airport.

Reports circulated on social media suggesting that the team had travelled from Gaborone to Francistown by road, a distance of over 450km.

Warriors team manager, Wellington Mpandare, however, dismissed the reports saying they were disappointing adding that a “visiting team cannot travel more than 200km by road. The Caf competitions rules are very clear on that.”

More: NewsDay