THE Young Warriors went to Barbourfields Stadium yesterday needing nothing short of a miracle to overturn a massive 5-0 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier deficit, but the football gods were in no mood to smile on them.

Coach Tonderai Ndiraya’s charges were mauled in the first-leg of the qualifier last Friday in Johannesburg and were hoping to make history by staging an epic comeback.

The Under-23 Afcon is scheduled to take place in November in Egypt. Three of the best finishers at the eight-team biannual contest will qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

The visitors allowed the hosts to have much of the ball while maintaining a good defensive shape.

Despite enjoying massive possession, the Young Warriors failed to create any meaningful scoring chance, as they were taught a lesson on game management. The visitors were comfortable with sitting back and holding onto possession rather than taking the game to the hosts.

Ndiraya bemoaned inadequate preparations for his side’s embarrassing exit.

“The game was lost in South Africa; coming here I thought much of the work had been done in South Africa where we were bad on the night and poor in all aspects of the game.

“I think it all comes down to the issue of preparations. We did not prepare, we are a team that just assembled and went to South Africa and you don’t do that at this level,” said Ndiraya.