KENYA national football team coach Engin Firat has lavished praise on Warriors and tips them to go beyond the group stages of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Zimbabwe qualified to the finals after playing out an entertaining one-all draw against Firat's side on Friday.
That draw took their points tally to nine ahead of their final Group J match against Cameroon in Yaounde tomorrow.
They can still finish top of their Group if they defeat the Indomitable Lions but that would only be a bonus having achieved the primary goal of qualifying for the finals.
The Warriors return to the Afcon finals after missing the last edition's qualifiers due to a Fifa ban.
Zimbabwe have now qualified for the last four editions that they participated in.
The primary target at Afcon will be to at least make it out of the groups, which they failed in five attempts.
Sunday Chidzambga (twice), Charles Mhlauri, Kalisto Pasuwa and Norman Mapeza all failed to lead the Warriors into the knockout stages of the continental showcase.
- Kenya coach tips Warriors at Afcon
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Firat believes that Zimbabwe have all the ingredients to achieve their target this time around.
He praised Warriors coach Michael Nees, who he had a couple of heated discussions with during the Friday match.
Nees will become the first foreign coach to preside over the Warriors at Afcon if he stays on until the tournament in December next year.
"Your coach is doing a really clever thing. He knows that Zimbabwe has a good defence and therefore he plays deep and goes for transition. He has brought back Khama Billiat and now has a real playmaker who can keep the ball," the Turkish coach said.
Firat had described Zimbabwe as the most dangerous team in the group when the draw was conducted earlier this year.
He reiterated his admiration of the quality of players that Zimbabwe have.
"The team is now very competitive. If I look around they have players playing for good clubs in big leagues. This is a really strong team. Even in our group Namibia have one point but in the World Cup qualifiers they are second in their group. So this group was very rough. This is the reality, Zimbabwe are going to the Afcon, they have had really good results."
Firat said Zimbabwe have a strong defence which is the foundation they built their success on.
The Warriors have so far conceded two goals in the qualifiers which were both defensive mistakes by Gerald Takwara.
"The football needed in Africa is fast transition and a very strong. I am sure Zimbabwe have a really good chance of going out of the groups something they have not achieved before. I think they have a very good chance this time."
Zimbabwe scored through Tawanda Maswanhise, who scored his first goal in a competitive international match before Michael Olunga profited from a defensive blunder to level matters.
The Warriors only needed a point and they thrilled their fans at Peter Mokaba Stadium as well as those watching on TV by clinching the last slot from their group after Cameroon had claimed the other one.
