WARRIORS star Jordan Zemura misses playing international football in home comforts and described as a great shame that Zimbabwe have to host home matches in foreign lands due to lack of approved facilities.
Zimbabwe begin their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying campaign this afternoon with an away clash against Kenya at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala, Uganda, before hosting Cameroon at the same venue on Tuesday.
Kenya and Zimbabwe are using neutral venues for their home matches because their supposed home stadiums were condemned by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) for hosting international matches.
Speaking to the media at the match venue yesterday, Zemura said the team misses the love they get from the home fans when playing at home.
“It’s a great shame that we are not playing at home,” the Italy-based defender said.
“Playing at home in a stadium full of your supporters, of course, there is pressure, but there is a sense of joy that brings more in your game when you are playing in front of your home people.
“When it’s a fully packed National Sports Stadium, I don’t think you can ask for anything better than that. But under the circumstances, we have to do what we have to do, but me and my teammates, we would love to be playing back in Zimbabwe and play in front of our home crowd, creating memories for them and creating memories for ourselves.”
The clash against the Indomitable Lions will be the third game that the Warriors will play “at home” outside the country after they hosted Nigeria in Rwanda and Lesotho in South Africa in the World Cup qualifiers earlier this year.
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Zemura admitted that the Warriors are desperate to return to the Afcon finals after missing the last edition held in Ivory Coast in January.
He said they want to kick off the campaign strongly with a victory over bogey side Kenya, who beat a full strength Zimbabwe team to win a four-nation tournament in Malawi this year before sending a Warriors second string team packing from the Cosafa tournament a few months ago.
The Udinese defender believes it is time Zimbabwe gets one back at Kenya.
“This is a start of a qualification for the Afcon after we missed the last one in Ivory Coast. So for us, we don’t want to miss out again,” he said.
“The beginning is always important and we are looking forward to the game. Kenya, we owe them a game for the last time. We are very confident and ready to go. We just need to work hard.”
Zemura, however, knows that Kenya will not be easy to beat.
“Kenya is a very good side. We learnt that when we played them in Malawi. They are very good, a disciplined team with a lot of good players. It’s a tough game for us.”
Zemura is one of the senior players in the squad full of young players, having received his first international cap in 2021.
“It’s good for me. It feels like a big achievement for me. The quality of players in the squad is always improving and always getting better.
“I feel like we have a good opportunity to win. The players are hungry to improve and give something to celebrate for the people back home,” he said of the quality in the team, and making a special mention to the “exceptional”.
