Zimbabwe’s national football team coach, Michael Nees, was pleased with their close 1-0 victory over Namibia in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Thursday.
Nees described the match as “ugly,” but said the main goal was to win. The game took place without fans at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, where Namibia had more control for much of the time. Khama Billiat scored the only goal in the 34th minute.
After the match, Nees admitted the team made some “technical mistakes,” but he focused on the importance of getting the three points. He said:
“This was not a pretty game. We expected a tough match. Without fans, we knew it would be a struggle. At half-time, we acknowledged our mistakes but knew we needed to win, no matter how it looked. We were lucky today and fought hard for this result.”
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With this win, Zimbabwe moved to the top of Group J in the qualifiers with five points, one point ahead of Cameroon and Kenya, who play each other on Friday.
Namibia is at the bottom of the group, having lost all three of their matches.
Looking ahead to the next match against Namibia on Monday, Nees was not too concerned about the team’s preparation, noting the difficult situation leading up to the game:
“I’m not very worried. I only had one training session with the full squad, and we couldn’t practice set pieces because we didn’t know what to expect in the stadium.”
If either Cameroon or Kenya wins, it will affect Zimbabwe’s position before their next match. Only the top two teams from each group qualify for the 2025 AFCON finals in Morocco, so Zimbabwe’s victory puts them in a good spot, but they need another win against Namibia to strengthen their chances of advancing. Michael Nees
