Warriors’ interim coach Jairos Tapera says the team is targeting to reach the semifinals as the country makes a return to the competition for the first time since 2021.
The 2024 Cosafa Cup kicks off on tomorrow (Wednesday) and will conclude on July 7 in Port Elizabeth.
Zimbabwe is the second most successful team in the competition with six wins in 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2017 and 2018 while Zambia have won seven.
Tapera will begin their Cosafa Cup campaign against Comoros on Thursday afternoon before entertaining Zambia three days later and conclude their Group B fixtures with Kenya on July 2.
“Coming this side we need to qualify for the semifinals and that is one target that we have to achieve at all cost. It’s a challenging group and it’s also challenging to the rest of the teams because they know Zimbabwe is a power house in terms of performance in Cosafa. We are not pushovers and we can’t expect anything besides qualifying to the next round and do the nation proud once again,” Tapera said ahead of the team’s departure for South Africa on Tuesday.
“We had disappointing results in the World Cup qualifiers but we have regrouped with purely a new squad comprising three quarters of Under -23 players.
“Yesterday ( Monday) we met and discussed about all these disappointments with the players making them aware that what we are here for is to get as many wins as possible. We are expecting a lot of positive results from these boys.
“They are looking shard and they are looking at doing better for the country and we are expecting them to deliver and make us proud again,” he said.
Zimbabwe were knocked out in the group stages the last time they were at Cosafa three years ago.