AFTER surrendering the destiny of their Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup Group A campaign to fate, Zimbabwe’s Warriors could find themselves needing to ride on their luck should Lesotho beat Mauritius and finish with the same goal difference with the hosts.

As has often become the norm with most of their campaigns in international tournaments, the Warriors yesterday blew a chance to seal their place in the Cosafa quarter-finals and book a date with the winner of Group B.Sunday Chidzambwa’s men drew 2-2 with Lesotho at Rufaro with the Warriors twice allowing the Crocodiles to force a share of the spoils.

Now, the Warriors and their fans would have to throw their full weight behind Mauritius tomorrow.
The Warriors had seemed to have put one foot into the quarter-finals when they thrashed Mauritius 3-0 on the opening day of the tournament on Saturday. But by the time Botswana referee Israel Ramocha blew to end the game, the Warriors were left to rue the two points lost than a point gained as they finished their preliminary round campaign with four points.

The Warriors will now be eliminated from the competition if: Lesotho beat Mauritius 4-0 or more.In the event that Lesotho beat Mauritius 3-0 and finish with the same goal difference with Zimbabwe, a toss of the coin by the Cosafa organising committee, will be made to determine who goes through to the quarter-finals.
In terms of the Cosafa rules and regulations of 2006, which are still in force, a toss of the coin will be used to determine the group winner in the event of two teams having the same number of points and being equal on goal difference.Swaziland, who are the top seeds in Group B of this year’s competition faced the same predicament last year when Sihlangu failed to advance after losing out on the toss of the coin in South Africa.

Sihlangu were in Group A with Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius, which was based in Witbank.
But with both Madagascar and Swaziland finishing with the same number of points — five — and the same goal difference of plus one, the organising committee had to resort to a toss of the coin.
And it was Madagascar who won and advanced to the last eight where they overcame Angola before losing to Mozambique in the semi-finals.

The Warriors who will have a light workout at Motor Action Sports Club today will certainly have their mind focused on tomorrow’s game hoping that Mauritius will hold their own against Lesotho.
In 2003, the Warriors also needed a helping hand from Gabon to qualify for their maiden African Cup of Nations in Tunisia the following year.

Chidzambwa was yesterday not amused at having to surrender the destiny of their campaign into the hands of their group rivals.
“In a game of football if you create a lot of chances and you fail to utilise them and you then make costly mistakes like we did today, you will get punished.”We conceded two stupid goals yet we should have been 3-0 up by half time.”Now qualification is no longer in our hands but that happens in football,’’ Chidzambwa said.
The veteran coach also refused to blame the draw on goalkeeper Washington Arubi’s clumsy challenge in the 84th minute, which resulted in Lesotho’s second penalty, which handed the Crocodiles a point they barely deserved.”He (Arubi) didn’t have a busy day and he made one big mistake but the simple facts are that we created so many chances, failed to use them and we got punished through two stupid goals,’’ Chidzambwa said.

It is also the second time in as many meetings this year that the Warriors have failed to beat the Crocodiles.In their first meeting in an international friendly at Barbourfields on August 12, it was Zimbabwe who needed to come from behind through a Guthrie Zhokinyu header to force a 1-1 draw.