2026 WCQ: Zimbabwe Not Out Of Qualification Race

Warriors of Zimbabwe head coach Michael Nees has said his team are not completely out of the qualification race for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Zimbabwe are bottom in Group C on three points after five games played and are the only team yet to record a win.

They will be facing the Super Eagles in the second leg after holding the AFCON 2023 runners-up to a 1-1 draw.

Speaking at Monday’s pre-match press conference, Nees said: “There’s always national pride when you play for the national team and you always have to give your best, there’s still 15 points to play for and until the games are over you are obliged to give everything.

“Even any team that is theoretically not in the race to qualify anymore they are also obliged to give their best because others are competing.

“We are obliged to give our best in every match and to be fair sports men and as long we have a chance we believe in our chance.”

Nees described the Warriors as a good team just like the Super Eagles.

“We are also a good team we can have our self confidence, our self belief and based on our performances let’s see which team would be the better one.

“As a coach you don’t only look at the result, you also look at the performance, how your team perform on the pitch, how they react when things don’t go well, and I think we played a very good match against Benin Republic, it was high level football match and we can take lots of positive things out from the match.”