By Darlington Mutsvairi
The Zimbabwe Warriors’ hopes of going through to the next round in their 2021 African Nations Championship (CHAN) campaign were cut short in an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Burkina Faso yesterday in Cameroon.
The Warriors who needed to coĺlect maximum points to stand a chance of progressing to the quarter finals seemed to have stood their ground in the first half following Partson Jaure’s 23rd minute equaliser which cancelled out Burkina Faso’s 14th minute goal courtesy of lssouf Sosso that had given them an early lead.
Burkina Faso sealed the Warriors’ fate in the second half reclaiming the lead in the 53rd minute through Clavert Tiendrebeogo’s goal while lssiaka Ouédraogo grabbed the winner fourteen minutes later.
A draw could have at least given the Warriors some hope of going further in the tournament as Cameroon and Mali had shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw earlier.
The Zimbabweans narrowly lost 1-0 to Cameroon in the tournament opener on Saturday and as such are still to bag a point.
Zdravko Logarusic’s troops will play in a dead rubber last group game against Mali who together with the hosts Cameroon are sitting on 4 points respectively. The Warriors lie on last position.
Only the top two teams from each of the four groups qualify for the quarter finals.
