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Mukudzei Chingwere Sports Reporter
FORMER Zimbabwe captain Benjani Mwaruwari has backed his Warriors to qualify for the 2019 African Cup of Nations finals and also urged Marvellous Nakamba to dream big after the Club Brugge midfielder took his UEFA Champions League bow last week.

Group G leaders Zimbabwe are in Kinshasa for what promises to be a mouth-watering clash against second-placed Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mwaruwari had been the last Warrior to play in the UEFA Champions League with AJ Auxerre before Nakamba made his debut in the competition last week.

Nakamba became only the fourth Zimbabwean international to play at that level of the game when he came on as a second half substitute in Club Brugge’s 3-1 defeat by Atletico Madrid in Spain. Mwaruwari said coach Sunday Chidzambwa’s men have a realistic chance of qualifying given that two teams from each group automatically book their place for the finals next year.

“We have a very good chance of qualifying considering that two teams qualify for the tournament we just need to get a good result in DRC.

“Yes it is possible (to win) we have quality players, a strong team considering the quality of Knowledge (Musona), Khama (Billiat) and Marvellous, they are all quality players, I do not see any problem they just need to concentrate and bring back a good result,” he said.

After his Champions League debut, Nakamba emulated the feats of Bruce Grobbelaar and Norman Mapeza.

Grobbelaar won the prestigious competition with Liverpool and Mwaruwari has also played for teams in the English premier league as well as the French Ligue 1.

But, the former Portsmouth and Manchester City striker had some words of advice for Nakamba.

“Some players play in the Champions League and the performance start to go down but it is up to the player to say where do I want to be in the next two or three years.

“Players also need to understand that when they come to the national team they are playing for the nation.

“The advice is to keep on working hard he needs to have ambition and aim higher to play a lot of games in the Champions League and a lot of games for the national team.

“He is in Belgium he needs to aim higher to play in bigger leagues like England, the Italian (and) Spanish leagues.

“Some people will say he is playing in Europe, it is good he is playing in Belgium, in France. No he needs to aim higher so that he moves quickly before time goes,” Mwaruwari said.

Zimbabwe have only qualified for three editions of the Nations Cup in their 38-year history.