World Cup (Q): Notsi lauds Lesotho’s self-belief

Lesotho’s national team coach Leslie Notsi says self-belief was key to their 1-0 victory over star-studded Zimbabwe in a final match of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Monday.

Likuena stunned the Warriors’ with a last-gasp injury time strike from substitute Hlompho Kalake at Peter Mokaba Stadium in South Africa for the hosts third win in 10 games for Group C.

“The most important thing that we engaged with our players was to have self-belief because every group, you would have a team coming from pot one and pot 2, obviously those are top-tier teams on the continent,” the coach said.

“So when we have the likes of Nigeria, Benin, South Africa and Benin, it is always difficult to play with them, but it is all about self-belief and planning. We are able to plan better and the players have self-belief.”

What Zimbabwe coach told his Lesotho counterpart

Notsi also acknowledge the glowing praise he received from his Zimbabwean counterpart Michael Nees after the game.

“It makes me to be more humble, appreciate and work harder than before because where we are as Lesotho, we are work in progress. We need to analyse ourselves, analyse the game and take all the positives that came out during the campaign,” he added.

Lesotho settled for a fourth place finish with 12 points, five behind leaders Benin who take on second-placed South Africa on Tuesday to decide the automatic team to book the World Cup ticket.