Zimbabwe head coach Michael Ness waxed lyrical about Harambee Stars skipper Michael Olunga terming him as ‘the best player in East and Central Africa’.Speaking after his team drew 1-1 with Harambee Stars on Friday, Nees said dealing with Kenya’s tall players was a big challenge, especially team captain Olunga.“He (Olunga) is the best player in East and Central Africa. His height and speed gave us problems but we found a way to deal with him.”TACTICAL ANALYSIS: How Engin Firat’s game plan cost Harambee Stars 2025 AFCON berthA delighted Nees further revealed that his team made the right decision to play their last qualifying match in Polokwane City.“Congratulations to all supporters who came today. It shows that this was the right decision to come here because they pushed us to draw this game,” he said.Nees also expressed delight that he did not have any interference from the Zimbabwe federation which made his work easy.##NAJAVA_MECA_8502153##Further, he believes the decision to convince winger Khama Billiat to return from retirement also helped the team qualify.The midfielder was recalled after he retired from the team three years ago but did not give reasons for his decision then, except to say that it was time to allow a new generation of players to come through“When I came into the team I always felt that there was something missing and made the decision to convince Billiat to come back.Firat gives verdict on unfulfilled AFCON 2025 promiseHe is a professional and one of the reasons he retired is because he wanted things done in a certain way and I had to convince him that the old ways were behind us and the team was being run professionally,” he said.On the Harambee Stars game, he admitted that his side had a nervous start as they knew what was at stake.“We nearly conceded early and it was a big relief that it did not happen because we knew that if we had lost we would have had to beat Cameroon away to qualify and that would have been a difficult task.##NAJAVA_MECA_8507015##After we scored, it helped us to calm down but we were nervous again when Kenya equalised with a goal that came out of nothing. This was a mental game and anything could have happened.”
