Kenyans Look To Pose Greatest Threat Than Cameroon In Upcoming Afcon Qualifiers
Zimbabwe Warriors have been drawn in Group J of the AFCON qualifiers, where they will battle it out with Kenya, Cameroon and Namibia for two spots at next year’s showpiece in Morocco.
On the 6th and 10th of September the Warriors will engage in a double header against Kenya and Cameroon respectively and soca263 looks at what the Warriors can expect from the two opponents in the upcoming fixtures.
On paper Cameroon remain comfortably Zimbabwe’s toughest group opposition than Kenya with a winning probability of 66,35% over Kenya’s 50,45% chance against the Warriors. But Kenya’s dominance over the Warriors in the previous fixtures will give them a bit of a psychological edge to win the encounter. Kenya who like Zimbabwe missed the previous addition of the AFCON finals due to FIFA suspension are determined to make their seventh appearance in Morocco.
The Harambee Stars have lost only one of their last five matches, keeping three clean sheets in the progress. They drew nil all against top ranked Ivory Coast in a nations cup qualifiers in 2023.
Kenya are also without defeat in six of their last seven matches across all competitions and have faced Zimbabwe twice in 2024, winning 3-1 in March’s friendly encounter before claiming a 2-0 triumph in the COSAFA Cup four months later.
The Indomitable Lions’ current form is, however, not as convincing as it used to, the current team lacks the determination of old. The side can’t hold a candle to Cameroon’s class of ’90s and ‘2000, which included the legendary and former coach Ringobert Song, Geremi Njitap, Patrick Mboma, Samuel Etoo and Roger Milla just to name a few.
Compounded by huge problems in the camp with a simmering impasse between the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) and the west African nation’s sport ministry which took Fifa and the country’s prime minister, Joseph Ngute, to calm tensions and broker a temporary ceasefire to allow the team to honour the two matches against Namibia and Zimbabwe, will need huge confidence boost to overcome the task ahead.
Cameroon have played six matches since the turn of the year winning two games, a 2-3 win against Gambia and a 4-1 win against Cape Verde in June World Cup qualifiers. They have drawn two times, 1-1 versus Guinea in January Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and another 1-all draw in their latest encounter against Angola in June World Cup qualifiers. Cameroon have lost twice, a 3-1 loss to Senegal and 2-0 loss against Nigeria respectively.
Their downward form is also highlighted by how they struggled to beat their next opponents Namibia in previous encounters losing once and drew once in the past two encounters.
However football is a game that can humble even the best sangomas in town, but the best way to find the real truth is to wait for the day the teams clash.
Kenya will host Zimbabwe Warriors at Nelson Mandela National stadium in Kampala, Uganda, kick off 3pm before hosting Cameroon at the same venue on the 10th of September.
*Prediction : Kenya 1-1 Zimbabwe
Cameroon 0-1 Zimbabwe
