Game week three in Group C of the World Cup qualifiers will see Zimbabwe taking on Lesotho at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.
Both national teams have taken two points from their first two games. Lesotho are currently in fifth while Zimbabwe are in sixth. Group C has been nick named the group of death.
Since the stadiums in their country failed to meet FIFA as well as CAF requirements, Zimbabwe will play their home games in South Africa. They will aslo remain in the country after their match against Lesotho to face Bafana Bafana(South Africa) next Tuesday.
Zimbabwe were banned by FIFA back in February 2022 because of governmental interference in the nation's football associations and they were also not permitted to participate in 2023 AFCON tournaments.
Zimbabwe are currently without a permanent head coach since their FA decided not to extend Baltermar Brito's temporary contract last year. Brito was in charge of the team for the first two qualifiers against Rwanda and Nigeria which both ended in draws.
ZIFA announced that Jairos Tapera, the former under 20s national team coach and coach of Manica Diamonds, will take charge of the team for the June qualifiers.
Zimbabwe have failed to win any of the last five matches they have played since returning to the international stage in September 2023. They have drawn three and lost two matches, including their most recent defeat to Kenya(3-1) at the end of March.
Lesotho have also struggled to make an impact on the international stage in recent years. The country have slipped to 149th, according to FIFA World Cup Rankings and 45th of 53 CAF nations, excluding unranked Eritrea.
The Crocodiles did not make it to the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year. They earned just one point from six games, finishing bottom of their group table behind Zambia, Ivory Coast and Comoros.
However, they have shown some signs of improvement in this tournament having picked up two points in their first two games. They drew against group favourites South Africa and Nigeria back in November.
They have played five friendly matches in 2024 in which they drew twice, lost twice and won one game in all the friendlies and it was against Ethiopia. This was their only victory in any competition since July 2023.
The last time Zimbabwe and Lesotho met was in a CAF African Nations Championship match in 2019. The match ended goalless and was the fifth drawn result between these two sides in 24 previous meetings. Zimbabwe have won 17 times while Lesotho have only won twice.
