Lesotho coach hopes for a comeback against Zimbabwe

Thabo Senong

Saturday Oct 19, 2019. 12:00

Former South Africa under-20 coach Thabo Senong will be hoping to engineer a comeback for his Lesotho team as they take on Zimbabwe on Sunday in their bid to qualify for a first major tournament.

Lesotho are 3-1 down from their first leg, but have a potentially vital away goal for the second leg at the Sesotho Stadium in Maseru as they see to advance to the African Nations Championship in Cameroon in January.

Senong, who took South Africa to successive U-20 World Cups, took over as Lesotho boss last month and saw his side narrowly lose on the away goals rule to Ethiopia in the preliminary round playoffs for Qatar 2022..

The CHAN tournament is for home-based players only and Lesotho’s side is virtually the game as they would put out in World Cup or Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers while Zimbabwe call on players from their own league.

Lesotho warmed up with a 1-1 draw at home to Malawi last Sunday in a friendly international and Senong is hoping that game helped solved defensive frailties to set up the platform for possible qualification this weekend.

Zimbabwe’s team features two former South African-based players: striker Prince Dube, who was previously on the books at SuperSport United and Black Leopards but now back home with Bulawayo’s Highlanders, and veteran defenders Partson Jaure, who was on the books at the University of Pretoria.