Nigeria coach Jose Peseiro is not taking anything for granted ahead of the Super Eagles’ clash with the Warriors in a 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying group phase match next month.
Zimbabwe will host Nigeria in Rwanda after failing to get a local stadium ready in time to host the World Cup qualifiers.
The Warriors will kick off their group campaign with a match against Rwanda in Kigali on November 13 before they host Nigeria in the same country a week later.
Peseiro has said that his mission is to take Nigeria to the World Cup but acknowledged that matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe next month will not be easy.
They played two friendlies against Saudi Arabia and Mozambique earlier this month while the Warriors had a poorly-organised training camp where Zifa failed to gather all the players that coach Baltemar Brito wanted to assess.
“We had two goals for this camp,” Peseiro told BBC Sport.
“The first was to create a great environment. The second, to prepare for Lesotho and Zimbabwe. When I signed my contract, my ambition was to take Nigeria to the World Cup and make them African champions. You must beat Lesotho and Zimbabwe, but you cannot think it's easy. Before, it's possible you could see the big difference between the teams but that is no longer true. Teams are closing the gaps.”
The 63-year-old Portuguese, who is sweating over the fitness of striker Victor Osimhen, wishes he could have one more preparatory match before his team takes on the two southern African nations.
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The other teams in the group are South Africa and Benin.
Nigeria have qualified for six Fifa World Cups in their history while Zimbabwe have never been to the finals. The only other team that has been to the World Cup is South Africa after qualifying for France 1998 before hosting the tournament in 2010.
