For new Warriors coach Michael Nees, Friday's clash against Kenya in the 2025 AFCON Qualifiers is more than just a game.

The 57-year-old gaffer will be marking his debut with Zimbabwe since his appointment in July.

Already odds are against Zimbabwe in this crucial encounter as The Harambe Stars have won six of the eleven games they have played against Zimbabwe.

The Warriors have only won one match against Kenya , CECAFA final match played in 1985.

Friday's match will mark a third meeting between the two sides this year, Kenya has won the previous two, 3-1 in the Four Nations tournament which was played in Malawi and 2-0 in the COSAFA Cup.

"For me it's a very good very difficult job tomorrow.

"You say it's a nice job for a coach, I don't think so because everybody will be giving his best from the training and only eleven are to be selected to start and others obvious will play from the bench.

"What we want is to have the best result at the end, and we are working towards that," said Nees.

Nees becomes the first substantive coach to lead the Warriors since Croatian tactician Zdravko Logarusic parted ways with ZIFA in 2021.

Zimbabwe missed the chance to play the 2023 AFCON Qualifiers due to a FIFA ban which was lifted in July last year and Nees believes there is need to psych up the players mentality ahead of this new campaign.

"We want to change the team's mentality, you know it's always difficult when you have players who have different style of play.

"So we want to adjust that so that we can all be on the same mentality level , because I believe it is key when you have a mixture of players based local and abroad," added Nees.

Zimbabwe will be hoping for the best on Friday afternoon as it is boasts of experienced players like Washington Arubi and Khama Billiat in the team.

Billiat reversed his international retirement last week after lengthy discussions with the new Warriors coach who described the 34-year-old forward as a key player in the squad.