Will the Warriors Qualify for the AFCON 2025 Finals?
2 October 2024
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From 21st December 2025 to 18th January 2026, AFCON 2025 will take place. The biennial African football tournament will be held in Morocco, with matches happening in six stadiums in six cities across the country. Ivory Coast, having won AFCON 2023, are the defending champions. The question is, how will the Zimbabwe national football team, a.k.a. The Warriors, perform?

AFCON 2025

At the time of writing, the start of AFCON 2025 is well over a year away. But, that doesn’t mean that excitement isn’t starting to build for it. As AFCON 2025 draws closer, more and more people will be placing bets at online sportsbooks like gg.bet, hoping to make money from their predictions. As AFCON 2025 gets closer, you’ll be able to bet on it; you could, for example, back a particular team to win the tournament or place bets on how a team or individual player performs.

The final will see a total of 24 teams compete against one another. The host country, Morocco, automatically qualified for a place in the final. A total of 51 other countries, including Zimbabwe, are competing for the remaining 23 places, with some already out of the competition. As of the time of writing, the Group stage of the qualifying process is underway, though Zimbabwe is yet to play any of its matches.

How Will The Warriors Fare at AFCON 2025?

Ever since Ivory Coast won the 2023 event, there’s naturally been a lot of talk about which team will be the next victor: will Ivory Coast hang on to their winning title or will another team take it from them? It’s way too early to tell right now, but there’s a good chance The Warriors will do well. This is because the team has done quite well in the past and continues to perform to a high standard today. Here are some of its achievements:

  • Winning the COSAFA Cup a total of six times, more than anyone else
  • Qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations no fewer than five times
  • Qualifying for the African Nations Championship five times

Despite the fact that Zimbabwe’s national football team has an impressive track record, it didn’t actually qualify for the previous AFCON in 2023. This was due to Zimbabwe and Kenya being banned from international football by FIFA due to various reasons, including the mismanagement of public funds.

Thankfully for The Warriors’ players and supporters, Zimbabwe was able to take part in AFCON 2025 and has just as much of a chance of earning a spot in the final as any other team. However, the team isn’t getting off to the best start. So far, The Warriors and the other three teams in Group J have played two matches. Kenya ranks first, followed by Cameroon, with Zimbabwe in third place and Namibia in fourth.

This isn’t the most promising performance from the team, but there are four matches to go. Hopefully, the sub-standard results will give the players the motivation they need to bring their A-game and make sure they go all the way and qualify for the finals.

Do The Warriors Stand a Chance?

With the Warriors not doing the best, people are concerned that the team might not be able to make it past the qualifying stage. Having said this, there’s a good chance the team’s luck will improve and they’ll clinch the wins necessary to make it through. Zimbabwe’s national team has never been successful at AFCON, having failed to make it past the Group stage every time.

However, AFCON 2025 could be when The Warriors break the trend and make it to the coveted final part of the tournament. If this happens, it would do wonders for the team as well as football in Zimbabwe. We’ll know by mid-November whether The Warriors have beaten their record and gone further in AFCON than ever before. Here’s hoping they do well!