Jordan Zemura: Players to blame for Zimbabwe's poor qualifying campaign

The Warriors ended bottom of Group C with five points, from five draws. They threatened to spoil South Africa's hopes of qualification with a hard-fought goalless draw on Friday but then followed that up with a 1-0 defeat to Lesotho on Monday.

Hlompho Kalake scored the only goal of the game at the Peter Mokaba Stadium with his late strike in the 93rd minute of the tie.

Nees had taken charge of the Warriors from previous head coach Jairos Tapera halfway through their qualifiers and wasn't able to improve on a poor start to their campaign, ultimately registering three draws and three defeats.

Speaking after the game, the Udinese left-back said on FARPost: "As a player, it's nothing about the coach in these situations, it's nothing to do with the coach. You saw the game, the fans watched the game.

"If you have 15 chances in front of goal and you don't score, you're not going to point at the coach for why we didn't score. He's made the substitutions. As players, we have to take responsibility.

"Personally, I think we have to take responsibility, we have to drive the level higher. I'm coming all the way from Seria A, I have to push my players to push as hard as they can."

Zemura added: "We've got players coming from the Premier League, we have to push, that's it. It's nothing to do with the coach in that situation.

"If the fans want to point at anyone, they should point at the players, it's as simple as that. It's nothing to do with the coach or the coaching staff.

“Today or another day, we can score two or three goals and then you'll be asking different questions. There's nothing to do with the coach for that one. I think the players have to take responsibility and that's it.”