Tadious Manyepo — Jordan Zemura has garnered so much experience in Warriors colours and it was in full display when Zimbabwe beat Namibia 1-0 in a 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier behind closed doors at Orlando Stadium in South Africa yesterday.
The Udinese star has always shown his quality but his rather conservative approach to the game has not been quite helping his cause. The Warriors had before yesterday won just one competitive game, the 2-1 victory over Guinea in the African Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon back in January 2022 with Zemura in the field of play has rather been seemingly working against his profile.
But he stepped up to the plate yesterday with a flawless show that won Zimbabwe a penalty that was bundled home by Khama Billiat for the only goal of the game 34 minutes into the reverting Southern African derby. While the Warriors had to muddle on and get the maximum points in a match in which they had to put in a solid defensive shift in the second period to smooth the Brave Warriors, it is Zemura who should have walked off an empty Soweto venue feeling more satisfied.
On entering the stadium, he should have felt the same way he felt when he debuted for the Warriors in November 2020 in a 2022 AFCON qualifier against Algeria at the 5 July Stadium in Algiers.
Zemura impressed in his left-back role where he was deployed in coach Michael Nees' 4-3-3 formation.
The German gaffer, who was winning his first game as Warriors coach having played out two goalless draws against Kenya and Cameroon, made several changes to his starting line-up from the one that started against Cameroon in Uganda last month.
But that didn't, in any way, stop Zemura from flexing his authority defensively and offensively.
He is on top of his game for his club Udinese not least after scoring the winning goal in their 1-0 victory over Lecce.
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And he declared at the start of this week that he wanted to take the same spirit into the Warriors which he thoroughly did yesterday.
"I am yet to score a goal for the Warriors but I am very happy to have been involved in some way in the build-up to the goal which we scored against Namibia," said Zemura.
"It was a tough match because we wanted it and Namibia also needed the win. But at the end of the day, I am really happy to see us getting over the line.
"It felt strange to play before empty terraces. We needed the fans to cheer us on but we knew they were following action in whatever means and we had to make them proud.
"It wasn't one of the greatest performances from us but we are glad it was good enough to earn us the win that will help us a lot going forward."
Zemura said they won't have sufficient time to celebrate the victory as they will need to immediately start preparing for the second leg against the same opponent in another crucial phase of the race given what is at stake.
