The Young Warriors will be looking to put on a much better performance at the Cosafa U-20 Championships today when they play Malawi.

Zimbabwe were humiliated by Zambia losing 5-1 in their opener. It was one of the worst performances by the Young Warriors at the competition.

Zimbabwe has a rich history winning the cup six times but looked out of sorts against a well drilled Zambian side that was ruthless in attack.

Zimbabwe has to win big against Malawi to stand any chance of remaining in the competition and hope Zambia will also be beaten by Malawi. Group B has three teams with the winner qualifying to the next stage.

Meanwhile Young Warriors head coach Mandla Mpofu has apologised for the loss against Zambia.

“It was a dismal show and, as the technical team, we would like to apologise to the nation. I know people did not expect that we could lose by such a big margin,” he told Newsday.

“We could have done better. Our boys lacked confidence playing on the big stage and we gave away soft goals.

We lacked cohesion playing against a side that has been in camp for two months and are preparing for the Africa Under-20 finals in January. We only had seven days to prepare.