Katsande reveals lions’ scars

By Ishemunyoro Chingwere

The Warriors’ dressing room resembled a funeral wake on Thursday night after a 0-2 to defeat to Senegal at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon, skipper Willard Katsande has revealed.

Goals from Liverpool’s Sadio Mane and Saint-Etienne’s Henri Saviet inside the first 15 minutes were all the West Africans needed to seal their place in the last eight.

Katsande said the team did not expect to lose to the West Africans after their promising start to the campaign which saw them tear the form book into shreds and get a commendable draw against the highly fancied Algeria.

“Obviously everyone is gutted and down,” Katsande told this publication from Franceville soon after Thursday’s defeat.

“We did not expect to lose the match, especially after our confidence was boosted by that strong show against Algeria in the first match.

“But that’s football for you. You can’t expect to get positive results in every match,” he said.

The Warriors are still in with a chance to qualify for their first ever quarter final appearance provided they beat Tunisia tomorrow and Algeria fail to beat Senegal.

After a review meeting, Katsande added that he had seen some improvement in the team’s morale as they travelled to Libreville for the Tunisia clash.

“We arrived well in Libreville and the good thing is the confidence is now rising among the boys,” Katsande said from the Gabonese capital on Friday.

“The good thing is destiny is still in our hands, we still have a very good chance to qualify and we must not let it slip.

“The nation must retain its confidence in us and rally behind the team for I believe if we are united we can achieve.

“We don’t want to talk about our strengths and weaknesses but obviously we have seen our mistakes in the two matches and we hope we will work on those to get a victory against the Tunisians.” The Sunday Mail