Harare, October 20, 2009 - Zimbabwe's Warriors blew the chance of an early passage to the quarter finals of the Cosafa senior soccer challenge after being held to a sluggish two all draw by Lesotho.

  Zimbabwe took the lead twice and twice Lesotho came from behind to score from the penalty spot and share the spoils with the favoured home side.

Zimbabwe will now have to wait for the outcome of Wednesday's other match in the group between Lesotho and Mauritius to know whether they will progress in the 13 country tournament.

Zimbabwe have four points, Lesotho have one point while Mauritius have none but Lesotho have a game in hand which if they win 4-0 against Mauritius they will sail through to the next round.

If Lesotho beat Mauritius 3-0 they will have the same number of points with Zimbabwe and the same number of goals and the team to go through to the weekend's quarter finals will be decided by the toss of a coin.

Zimbabwe though have themselves to blame to be in this precarious position. Coach Sunday Chidzambwa made three surprise changes of the team that thumped Mauritius 3-0 on Saturday.

He dropped the industrious Monomotapa captain Mthulisi Maphosa and replaced him with Ashley Rambanepasi, took of Thabani Kamusoko for disappointing Archieford Gutu and also replaced CAPS United striker Nyasha Mushekwi with Evans Gwekwerere.

The changes, though, saw the team lack cohesion as both Rambanepasi and Gutu struggled with their game.

The Warriors, though, were the first to take the lead through Cuthbert Malajila. The Dynamos striker latched onto Gwekwerere's pass to release a thunderbolt that Lesotho goalkeeper Sam Katsekile only saw at the back of the net. Katsekile

The visitors equalised through the penalty spot converted by Thabiso Maile after Method Mwanjali had impeded a Lesotho striker.

The game appeared to be heading Zimbabwe's way in the 62nd minute when Gwekwerere capitalised on a spill from Lesotho substitute goalkeeper Lekunutu Tseounyane. With that goal celebrations took centre stage as Zimbabweans thought the game had been sealed.

But that was not to be as Musa Sello scored from the penalty sport after Zimbabwe goalkeeper, Washington Arubi had brought Busy Moletsne down in the box.

With that goal, Zimbabwe's chances are now hanging on a game in which they will not play any part.

Meanwhile the wrong Lesotho national anthem was played on a day confusion reigned supreme in Wednesday's Cosafa senior challenge soccer match between Zimbabwe and Lesotho.

Instead of the real Lesotho national anthem, the police band played God Less Africa much to the surprise of the Lesotho players and their fans who were on their feet to sing along their national anthem.

It was only after a point of correction was made that the real anthem was then played by the band.

In fact, the instrument version of God Bless Africa is used by South Africa and a few other African countries and was at one time adopted by Zimbabwe.

On a day where confusion was the order of the day, there was also chaos  at the VVIP entry point as fans and invited guests jostled to gain entry.

Those manning the gates were overwhelmed by the huge turnout at this entry point and some even finally entered the ground 30 minutes or so after the match had started.

During Premiership matches, this gate is normally used by VVIP card holders and the media but this time, a list of fans was placed at this entry point for their free entry to go through and support the Warriors

Instead Chris Romario Musekiwa and his troops blocked the entry point for guests including some from the Cosafa leadership and other foreign dignitaries resulting in chaos.

By Radio VOP