All roads lead to BF on Africa Day for Bosso, DeMbare rearranged blockbuster

Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo is the best place to be on Africa Day celebrated Thursday 25 May as the country’s two flagship premier soccer league giants Highlanders and Dynamos lock horns in a rescheduled matchday five fixture.

Initially, the much anticipated encounter was slated for 15 April but it was called off to allow both teams to prepare for the President’s invitational Independence Cup trophy in Mount Darwin on April 18.

Bosso won the cup tie 5-3 on penalties after Ghanaian Emmanuel Paga miscued his penalty resulting in DeMbare’s loss.

Now more than four weeks on, the two sides are set to clash again.

This time, they tussle in a league match after the local football mother body, the PSL rearranged the fixture a week ago.

Recently, they played in a neutral venue but on Thursday the Bulawayo giants, Bosso host the Harare giants, DeMbare at their fortress Barbourfields Stadium.

Despite being a mid week fixture, a full house is expected at Emagumeni as Barbourfields is also known, with the two club’s faithfuls anticipated to throng the stadia for the mouthwatering encounter.

Both teams go into the blockbuster match hoping to collect maximum points after three weeks without tasting a win.

Bosso last recorded a victory when they defeated Hwange 1-0 at Barbourfields three weeks ago while on the same day Dynamos beat rivals CAPS United 0-2.

The two teams are going through a rough patch at the moment after a poor run in the last three games.

In a combined 540 minutes played in six games, they scored only once through Bosso’s goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda’s penalty against Cranborne on Sunday.

It is highly likely set to be a low scoring match due to the team’s poor run, but on the other hand form might also not count much when the old time rivals clash in a derby dubbed as “Battle of Zimbabwe”.

The last time the two teams squared off at Barbourfields Stadium, the match was abandoned after serious crowd trouble.

The match was marred by a series of second half stoppages with fans from both sides taking turns to invade the pitch in protest at what they believed were questionable calls by the referees.

Chaos that then led to the abandonment of the match in stoppage time when Bosso striker Washington Navaya scored a 90th minute header.

In wild celebrations, Bosso fans invaded the pitch while DeMbare players unhappy with an alleged foul on Shadreck Nyahwa during the build up to the goal, protested.

They surrounded the referee arguing the goal shouldn’t have stood and it was during that moment when DeMbare fans also invaded the pitch, joined in before they uprooted the goal post, tore the net and also destroyed the perimeter fence.

A ruling by PSL’s Disciplinary Committee was later delivered and both teams were slapped with fines then Bosso were also awarded the match on a 3-0 scoreline.