In only his second match with Zimbabwe, the Romanian Mario Marinică defeated the national team qualified for the World Cup

With only one success in 2025, the Federation of Zimbabwe, a country in the south-east of Africa, installed the Romanian Mario Marinică as a selector. Marinică, 60 years old, has significant experience on the African continent, previously coaching Malawi and Liberia.

Marinică lost the first match at the helm of the Zimbabwean national team, 1-3 against Algeria, but got revenge today, 4 days away.

In a friendly played at the Abdullah bin Khalifa stadium in Doha, the African representative produced a surprise result, defeating the hosts qualified for the World Championship. We are talking about a team coached by Julen Lopeteguithe one who trained Real Madrid, Sevilla, Wolves, but also the first representative of Spain!

In only his second match with Zimbabwe, the Romanian Mario Marinică won in Qatar

Qatar opened the scoring through Mohamed Gouda ('9), but the visitors hit back through Garananga ('24) and Bill Antonio ('74).

It was the ideal result before participation in the Africa Cup of Nations. In December, Zimbabwe will play Group B matches with South Africa, Egypt and Angola.

Before today's match, Mario Marinică had spoken at one of the training sessions about the need for change:

“No win in the last 10 games, only 5 draws and 5 goals scored. Obviously, the players need a change and I'm here to help them change. (…)

For me there is no such thing as being pessimistic before a match, it never brings anything good. Let's be optimistic, that's what we told the players. They need to change, they need to be proud of their country and make the country proud of them. So, let them work harder and keep their heads up.”