HARARE - Zimbabwe remained 100th in the latest world rankings, which were released by Fifa yesterday.  

Klaus-Dieter Pagels’ men gained one place in Africa from 26 to 27 while their opponents in a World Cup qualifier at the end of the month, Egypt, dropped five places on continental rankings from number 11 to 16.

Ivory Coast remained Africa’s top-ranked team on the global rankings on position 13 followed by Ghana on number 20.

There was little movement in the world’s top 10 with world champions Spain maintaining pole position while Germany are number two with South American giants Argentina  occupying third place.

The Warriors will resume their World Cup qualification campaign with a tough away trip to Egypt on March 27.

Despite making injury forced changes to his original squad, Pagels believes his team will resurrect its disappointing qualification campaign.   

The Warriors have picked just a point from two games in Group E.

Pagels has kept faith in the youthful team that edged Botswana 2-1 in an international friendly in January in Harare, with only Denmark-based winger Quincy Antipas, South Africa-based striker Rodreck Mutuma and Dynamos defender Augustine Mbara the new faces in the squad.

Egypt leads the group with six points from two matches after beating Mozambique 2-0 in Alexandria and Guinea 3-2 in Conakry.

“It’s not mission impossible.  I have seen the Egyptians playing and the only thing our players need to do is to adopt the right attitude when we go there,” Pagels told Daily News yesterday.

“I am not worried about injuries of some of the players. The ones who are coming to replace them are equally good and they can play football according to our system and tactics.

“Most of these players from the Botswana friendly match are available and we want to continue to improve with them.”

Pagels said he will make some tactical changes for the Egypt game, adding:

“The only thing that I can promise is that we will go there and try to win. When I was still a player and I always wanted to win and that’s what I am looking to.” -
Godknows Matarutse