‘Game will be won in midfield’

WARRIORS midfielder Andy Rinomhota has pinned Zimbabwe’s hopes of winning the Four Nations Tournament on France-based captain Marshal Munetsi, who leads the team against Kenya at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe this evening.

Rinomhota, who turns out for Rotherham United on loan from Cardiff City in England, believes Munetsi’s prowess and experience will give the team the muchneeded edge to dominate the midfield battles against the East Africans.

The Norman Mapeza-mentored team stormed into the finals of the tournament after edging neighbours Zambia 6-5 on penalties in the first of the double dose semi-finals at Bingu National Stadium.

Kenya went on to wallop the hosts 4-0 in the other semi-final.

Rinomhota believes their battle will be won in the midfield.

“Playing with Marshal will make it easy for us, he is a good player with a lot of experience, and being in there together with him will give us something good,” Rinomhota said.

“Munetsi has the experience and that should give us an advantage. I think having the two of us in there would be great. We will have to quickly try to build a good relationship and make it count for our team.”

Munetsi and Rinomhota played together against Nigeria last year when the latter made his Warriors debut in the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in Rwanda.

Playing their home match at a venue in Rwanda, the pair gave a decent shift in the midfield as the Warriors collected a point following a one-all draw, courtesy of Walter Musona and Kelechi Iheanacho’s goals.

The on-loan Cardiff City midfielder feels that the Warriors have what it takes to collect bragging rights against Kenya today.

“This is not the first time playing together with Munetsi, I have played with him before and I enjoyed it a lot so I am confident we can do it again today,” he said.

“I am happy we won the first game, we started a bit slow but after about 15 minutes we got our groove; we all saw the difference because we went on to play very well.

“Maybe in the first minutes, we were still adjusting but I am happy we turned the game around and it worked. So, now playing with Munetsi for the second time will be great.”

The Harambee Stars have dominated meetings between the two teams but Rinomhota believes the Warriors will register their second win today if they play their cards right.

“As a team, we have our expectations. We want to win and also our fans look forward to us winning hence we need to be at our level best today.

“We watched a bit of their game, we wanted to see how they play and as well get ourselves prepared mentally and physically,” he said.