Written by Praise Dumi DhlakamaZimbabwe sports betting writer
Published 11 November 2026
Zimbabwe’s Young Warriors were handed a brutal reality check in their bid to reach the 2027 Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations, slumping to a 3-0 defeat to Mali in the first leg of their second-round qualifier at the National Sports Stadium on Wednesday.
Mali were dominant from the first whistle and effectively settled the contest inside the opening half-hour. Aboubacar Sidibe cut in from the left wing and fired past Zimbabwe goalkeeper Chikowero to open the scoring in the 8th minute, before Niama Pape Sissoko doubled the advantage in the 23rd minute.
Any faint hopes of a Zimbabwe comeback were extinguished 10 minutes after the interval, when Seydou Dembele, the 18-year-old Stade de Reims attacking midfielder earning his first Mali U23 call-up, finished off the scoring.
A makeshift bench, a familiar story
Zimbabwe were led by assistant coach Wilson Mutekede, with head coach Marc Sánchez absent on senior national team duty for the Warriors’ 2027 AFCON qualifier against Equatorial Guinea. Mutekede had spoken beforehand of the need for a positive home result to carry into the return leg, but his side were undone by Mali’s sharpness and clinical edge.
The Young Warriors had arrived in this round buoyed by a 6-1 aggregate thumping of Mauritius, a tie in which Portsmouth teenager Elisha Pfupa scored a first-half hat-trick, Zimbabwe’s first at Under-23 level in 26 years.
But Mali, seeded and exempt from the first round, represented a significant step up in class. The West Africans finished third at the 2023 U23 AFCON to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics and are regarded as one of the continent’s strongest junior sides.
The mountain ahead
Zimbabwe must now travel to Bamako for the second leg on Tuesday, 17 November, needing to overturn a three-goal deficit against a Mali side that will be firmly in control of the tie. The winner progresses to the third qualifying round, with the ultimate prize a place at the 2027 U23 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and a pathway to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
For Mutekede and his players, the return leg is now about pride and damage limitation as much as qualification. Mali, by contrast, will arrive home with one foot already in the next round.
