WALES-BASED Warriors defender Alec Mudimu has emphasized on hard work as Zimbabwe confront the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a Group G Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier in Kinshasa on Saturday.
BY GARISH PHIRI
After the Kinshasa match the two teams will clash again in the return fixture in Harare on Tuesday.
Currently leading the group, the Warriors will need to collect at least four points from these two matches against this highly-rated DRC side to stand a good chance of qualifying for the finals next year.
Top two teams from this group, which also has Liberia and Congo Brazzaville, will book a ticket to the finals, set for Cameroon in January.
DRC roped the experienced Chancel Mbemba who had been omitted from the initial provisional squad. Mudimu is optimistic they can salvage something as they will have ample time to prepare for this match.
The team left for DRC yesterday and will have time to acclimatise in Kinshasa’s humid conditions.
“We have had time to prepare here at home, we have had an intense training session today (yesterday) and the morale in the camp is high. Everyone is here together and we have worked together. I think going into DRC it’s not going to be easy but we just have to stay together, work very hard and pull a good result. It’s not an impossible mission for us. We are going there to try to win,” he said.
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“Going into the game I feel very confident, but we have to be careful and make sure we don’t give anything away.”
The match kicks off at 8:15pm and the Warriors will have some of their training sessions during the evening to prepare themselves for match conditions.
“It’s never easy playing away from home, even at club level as well, we can’t go there with open arms, we have to be very compact and be very hard to beat and I feel we are very good at that. Against Brazzaville it was the left-back which was shaky and we have managed to work on it” he said.
Mudimu plays in midfield for his club Cefn Druids, but Chidzambga prefers to play him at centre-back and he is likely to continue in that role in the two matches.
