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Stories from Tadious Manyepo in BAFOUSSAM, Cameroon

WITH an individual market value that doubles the entire Malawi squad, Warriors forward Tino Kadewere has spelt the danger of treating the Flames as pushovers.

Zimbabwe and Malawi face-off in the African Cup of Nations Group B tie here this evening.

The match, which is a must-win for both teams, kicks-off at 6pm local time.

And for more reasons than one, the Warriors are ahead of their opponents whose whole team has a market value of e4.3 million, almost half of what Kadewere, with a market value of e8 million, is worth as an individual.

The Warriors squad as a unit has a market value of e15,83 million and are ranked 17th out of the 24 teams taking part at this African football jamboree in terms of market value.

But, all that doesn’t count much on the field of play with Kadewere insisting the Warriors should put even more effort than they did against Senegal on Monday.

“I think we are all warmed up to this game and we have to try and win it,” Kadewere said.

“We need to summon the same spirit we had against Senegal.

“We should not underrate Malawi as that could cost us dearly.

“As a team, we had a very encouraging mindset against Senegal and that is the same mindset we should have against Malawi. And we also watched Malawi against Guinea. They gave it their all and they were depleted. But they did so well and they ought to be respected.”

The Lyon striker said the morale in the Zimbabwe camp is encouraging and the fact that every player is showing the desire to play for each other makes him believe the Warriors would prevail over Meck Mwase’s charges.

Kadewere is part of the department that has scored just two goals in the past seven games and he said the team has to do more going forward.

“But one encouraging thing, which is in our camp, is that the players are well motivated. They are focused on the match and we are all raring to go.

“It’s very simple here, go out there, play well, collect the maximum points and strengthen your chances of progressing to the next round.

“We have been working on our shortcomings and we believe we will get it right.

“We are able to create scoring chances as a team but we have been lacking the cutting edge. We need to score goals for it is goals that win matches. We are professionals and we know how important it is to score goals.”

The current crop of Warriors could become the first generation to make it to the knock-out stages of the AFCON finals.

And Kadewere said it’s always good to be counted as the first crop to have done one or two things.

“The aim has always been to progress to the next round.

“Look, we have been at this tournament for the fifth time now and this is our third time in a row. “We need to break that jinx now but we will only cross the river when we get there. “Our task at hand is not simple.

“We need to be at our best to beat Malawi and we see what happens as we prepare for our last group match against Guinea.

“We have to take each game one by one and step by step. We faltered in the first game under unfortunate circumstances and we have a chance to redeem ourselves against Malawi… “At the end of the day winning is all that matters. Let’s beat Malawi, see what happens against Guinea and you never know, we could be on our way to the knock-out stages, which is the initial aim.

“We will then raise the bar but first things first, let’s beat Malawi.”