Town midfielder Nakamba captains Zimbabwe to AFCON qualifying win over Namibia

Luton midfielder Marvelous Nakamba was named captain as Zimbabwe gained a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Namibia in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying clash on Thursday.

The 30-year-old was winning his 27th cap having last played for the Warriors almost a year ago, as the match took place behind closed doors at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was Namibia who had the better of things in the first half, only for Zimbabwe to open the scoring in the 34th minute, Yadh FC forward Khama Billiat on target from the penalty spot, just, after Udinese’s defender Jordan Zemura had been fouled inside the area.

Nakamba, who has only returned to the Hatters first team recently after a serious knee injury, was replaced after 79 minutes, as Namibia could have levelled, only to hit the woodwork. Zimbabwe might have doubled their lead though, Daniel Msendami also denied by the post, as Douglas Mapfumo also wasted a late opportunity.

The victory saw Zimbabwe now top Group J with five points, and play Namibia again on Monday in the second leg of the AFCON qualifier at the same venue, although this time fans will be allowed to attend. Speaking to the Pindula News, head coach Michael Nees said: “The game was no beauty contest. It was a hard fight that we had anticipated. Because there were no spectators allowed, we knew that it was going to be a fight; not a beauty contest, and at half-time we said okay today we also had some technical mistakes, and let’s accept. We just have to win no matter how it looks.

“Today we were a bit more lucky because we were fighting, we had luck at the right time and no bad luck at the wrong time and that’s all we could do, to fight until the end and today we got a deserved result for that reason. I’m not that worried, but you must see the circumstances our game was taking place. I only had one training session with the full squad. One hour in this stadium where you cannot even train set-pieces because you don’t know who is sitting in the stadium. That’s all that we could do.”