Warriors Bow Out Of Africa Nations Championship

It is end of the road for Zimbabwe Warriors at the 2020 Africa Nations Championship after a 3-1 defeat to Burkina Faso on Wednesday night.

They became the first team to exit this year’s competition after losing their first two group games.

The Warriors who lost 1-0 in their opening match to host Cameroon, had hoped for a victory against Burkina Faso to revive their hopes of progressing at the tournament, but the Stallions looked more hungrier for a win from the start as they found the back of the net in the first quarter of the match.

Issofu Sosso opened the scoring for Burkina Faso in the 14th minutes to put Stallions in the lead with a low shot beating Zimbabwe goalkeeper Simbarashe Chinani who replaced Ariel Sibanda in an almost newly changed first XI from the one that played against Cameroon in the opening match.

Warriors Coach Zdravko Logarusic had to tinker and tailor with his first XI after half of his key players ruled out because of injury and sickness.

However the Warriors later found their foot in the game and restored parity making it 1-1 in the 23rd minutes with a fantastic outfooter goal by Partson Jaure after a nice build up play.

The teams went to half time on a 1-all draw, but Burkina Faso dominated position and had a number of glaring scoring chances before the break.

Burkina Faso continued their dominance in the second half and were later rewarded with a goal courtesy of Tendrebiogo who capitilised from Warrior’s defensive mix up to make it 2-1.

Substitute Issiaka Quendraogo put a nail in the Warriors coffin after scoring Burkina Faso’s third goal in the 67th minutes to claim a 3-1 victory and revive their hopes of a last 8 spot.

Burkina Faso are now third on the log with 3 points from 2 games. They play host Cameroon in their final group match.

Meanwhile Zimbabwe Warriors will travel to Douala for their final clash against Mali on Sunday at the Japoma stadium.