Harambee Stars boss Engin Firat has acknowledged beating Zimbabwe and Namibia in their final Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025 qualifiers will not be easy.
Kenya is expected to play Zimbabwe on Tuesday, November 15 at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in South Africa before squaring it out with Namibia on Friday, November 19 at the same venue.
Kenya will have to win the two matches and hope that results in the other games go in their favour to stand a chance of playing in the upcoming continental showpiece that will be hosted in Morocco.
As it stands, Cameroon and Zimbabwe have higher chances of booking the two available as they sit first and second in group J with 10 and eight points respectively.
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On the other hand, Harambee Stars has four points while a pointless Namibia side sits at the bottom of the group.
Speaking ahead of the essential fixtures, Firat pinpointed some of the tactics that he believes their opponent will use against them.
“You know Namibia and Zimbabwe will play very deep against us. They will play on the counterattack and will not open the game. Therefore, we know that we have to pressure, we have to push because they will not open the game.
They will try to play on time. We are aware of this and we will also have our ideas on how to open the game and how to exploit their weak sides,” he explained.
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Firat, who is under pressure from Kenyan fans to deliver, added that the quality of Zimbabwean players will also make life difficult for his charges.
According to him, the fact that Zimbabwe has a solid backline and Namibia is doing well in FIFA World Cup qualifiers, makes them tougher opponents.
“Zimbabwe has a lot of quality players who are playing in Serie A, Premier League and French Ligue 1. They have a full squad, nobody is missing. I think in the squad everybody is there.
And you saw in the qualifiers Zimbabwe conceded only one goal. In the world cup qualifiers, Namibia is second in their group. So, some people don’t know how strong these teams are. We are aware of it but it doesn’t change the fact that we want to win,” Firat stated.
Harambee Stars travelling squad
