Zimbabwe were handed a reality check Thursday night by a rampant Senegal who showed their class by strolling to an easy victory as Africa’s number one-ranked football nation powered into the quarter-finals in style in Franceville and left the Warriors starring elimination at the group stage again.
After having impressed the world with a stylish show against Algeria in the opening match of their campaign, the Warriors were well beaten by the Lions of Teranga, who could have even powered to a very big victory had it not been for the brilliance of ’keeper Tatenda Mukuruva who had a night to remember among the posts.
Now and again, especially towards the end when the Warriors threw caution to the wind, the Senegalese found themselves clear at goal, but Mukuruva managed to enhance his profile with brilliant saves.
Zimbabwe, though, can still make it to the quarter-finals should they beat Tunisia in their final game on Monday and Algeria lose to this rampant Senegalese side, but the Warriors need to up their game after a largely lifeless performance.
The Zimbabwe talisman Khama Billiat, impressive in the first game, was largely kept out of the game as the Senegalese found a way to deal with his threat, using their strength and numbers to neutralise him, as Aliou Cisse won the battle of local coaches with his Zimbabwean counterpart Callisto Pasuwa.
Billiat, blasting the ball horribly over after being put through in the dying stages of the game, summed up a difficult night for him and the Warriors who, by the end of the contest, had lost their shape with few men back in defence.
Twice, the Warriors were opened up in the first five minutes with the first shot drifting wide of goal before a blunder by skipper Willard Katsande carved an avenue for Stoke City’s Mame Biram Diouf who then clipped his effort horribly wide into the side netting with his left foot with Mukuruva at his mercy.
The Warriors had been warned and, after just nine minutes, they were duly punished as the Senegalese’ pressure finally told and reaped huge dividends for the Lions of Teranga.
Matthew Rusike lost possession in midfield, an intended pass being turned over by the Senegalese’ high intensity pressing, and the West Africans — as they usually do when they push into the final third of the opponents’ half — handed the responsibility for the creativity to impressive Lazio midfielder Keita Balde.
He roared down the left channel, his pace and confidence helping him to gain a lot of ground before he stroked the ball in no-man’s land between Mukuruva and his retreating defence with the ball being poked home, at the back post, by Sadio Mane, the Liverpool man rolling it into an empty net for his second goal of the tournament.
Africa’s most expensive footballer won’t score an easier goal in Gabon.
And five minutes later, the West Africans doubled their lead with a beauty.
When they won a free-kick from about 25 metres out, their pressure having forced the back-pedalling Warriors into making another mistake, Henri Saivet, the Newcastle midfielder on loan to French top-flight club St Etienne, took responsibility and curled in a beauty, which escaped the radar offered by the defensive shield and then drifted away from the reach of Mukuruva into the far post.
It was a spectacular effort, a wonder goal, the only sickening thing about it, from a Zimbabwean point of view, being that it plunged a dagger into Warriors’ hearts, still shaken by a blitzkrieg in which the West Africans had taken the game to them as if to make a big statement of their pedigree and difference in class.
The Lions of Teranga dominated the midfield in the first half, with the Warriors giving them the freedom of Franceville, with the 21-year-old Balde — probably the most exciting young talent in African football today, always finding himself in acres of space to conduct the orchestra with aplomb.
This meant that it wasn’t until the half-hour mark that the Warriors had their first shot on target, Billiat firing from range which didn’t trouble the ’keeper before the Warriors’ forward curled a free-kick high and wide of the target during a promising but short spell for the Warriors in which their adventure pushed the Senegalese backwards.
Then, after 43 minutes, Billiat burst into the Senegalese area at pace and although he managed to get his shot at goal, it was weak and straight at the ’keeper.
The sight of the Warriors having an impromptu group meeting, after the referee called to end their first half pain, showed that things were not going according to plan and something had to change.
Pasuwa dropped Danny Phiri, who impressed in the first game against Algeria with a gritty midfield performance he capped with an assist for the Warriors’ first goal at this Nations Cup finals scored by Kuda Mahachi, for the returning Marvelous Nakamba who missed the opening match as he served a one-match suspension.
But, instead of giving the Warriors the value they badly needed to take the game to their technically-gifted opponents in that first half, that change appeared to affect the solidity of their midfield, which again sat too deep to allow the Senegalese to dance their way into enemy territory now and again.
Nakamba, who celebrated his 23rd birthday yesterday, was given harsh lessons, in that first half, of the challenges of playing football at this level of the game on the continent, betrayed by his touch, overwhelmed by the numbers of the opponents and kept finding himself left behind by the pace of the action.
At the break, Pasuwa brought in Tendai Ndoro and Matthew Rusike for Mahachi and the other Rusike, gambling on the pace of the Orlando Pirates’ striker and the strength of the Maritzburg United forward to give his team the fighting chance he wanted to turn the game on its head.
But, it was the Senegalese who should have made it three moments later when Katsande, with space in midfield having been stolen by the ferocity of the pressing game by the Senegalese, was forced into another turn-over of possession and the ball was pushed to Diouf who held out his marker and then shot over the bar.
A rasping shot by the gangly Cheikhou Kouyate just drifted wide soon afterwards, after Mane had curled his effort just over, before Diouf had his effort superbly saved by Mukuruva with all this happening in the first eight minutes after the interval.
The Senegalese had shown their quality in that first half against Tunisia before they took the foot off the pedal, but this time they didn’t want to make similar mistakes and came from the breather still operating at full throttle, giving away very little with a punishing defensive line and forwards who broke at pace.
Just after the hour mark, Nyasha Mushekwi had a good claim for a penalty turned by the referee after he stole behind his marker inside the box, but the Senegalese defence were looking comfortable, riding on their advantage, and their strength ensuring there was very little for the Zimbabwe forwards.
And in the 68th minute, Mane went one-on-one with Mukuruva but the young ’keeper saved before the rebound was headed away off the line by Costa Nhamoinesu during a period when the West Africans were dominant.
Mushekwi produced the best chance for the Warriors with a powerful shot which the ’keeper saved while the Senegalese had a number of other chances to add to their tally with both Mane and Moussa Sow missing when they went for the spectacular.
The Warriors, in the end, were well beaten and, like the Class of 2006, they lost by the same scoreline to the West Africans.