THEY might have thrown the first punch, but Namibia coach Ricardo Mannetti says his Brave Warriors remain rank underdogs in their CHAN showdown against Zimbabwe whose second leg is set for the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.

The Namibians became the first side to beat Zimbabwe in a CHAN qualifier after a second half goal powered them to a 1-0 victory over the Warriors in Windhoek.

But that was just part one of the battle.

The two teams now meet in the second part in Harare on Sunday with the Warriors under pressure to win by two clear goals if they are going to remain in the competition.

The Zimbabweans have qualified for every CHAN finals since the inaugural tournament was held in Cote d’Ivoire in 2009.

And Mannetti says his men remain the underdogs.

“Zimbabwe are still the favourites; they have just won the COSAFA Cup, they have a lot of players and a lot of depth and they will be playing at home.

“So we will have to prepare very well and play above ourselves. If we don’t display the same fight, the same tempo and attitude, we will find the going very tough in Zimbabwe,” he said.

Namibia captain Ronald Ketjijere said they found a way to nullify the Zimbabweans’ threat by keeping the ball on the ground, especially in the second half.

“I told the boys we must just put the ball on the ground because Zimbabwe has giants in their team so they were winning all the battles in the air and in the midfield.

“So it was better to put the ball down and when we did that we created a number of chances — that’s our game and that’s our strength, we have fast boys who are good on the ground.

“The victory means a lot because it gives us a platform to be active and if we beat Zimbabwe now we will have a chance of playing more games. We struggle to get friendly games and we have to play bigger competitions without friendly games so there’s a lot of struggles in Namibian football now,” he said.

Namibia’s last two CHAN matches away from home saw them conceding three goals in Maputo and two in Zambia.

Zimbabwe have turned the National Sports Stadium into their fortress and the last three international matches there, in the AFCON qualifiers, have seen the Warriors score 10 goals without reply against Malawi, Swaziland and Liberia. — Agencies.

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