Warriors coach Zdravko Logarušić believes his side’s failure to convert chances, poor defending and giving the Algerians too much space leading to ‘naive goals’ resulted in their loss last night.

Zimbabwe lost 1-3 to the Desert Foxes, a result which perhaps could have been different had they defended better and converted their chances, especially in the first half.

Speaking to Soccer24 from from Algiers this morning, the Croat, who was overseeing his first competitive game in the Warriors dug-out, rued missed opportunities and the kind of goals conceded by his charges.

“In such a profile game, like the game against Algeria, what is very important is to convert the chances which come your way,” he said.

“Also, you have to protect yourselves and not concede some naive goals, giving away goals basically. In the preparation of the game, we told them that we will not have so many chances, so we have to take them and score, cut the space and not concede naive goals.”

“I think at the end Algeria were better and deserved to win the game last night, but we learnt some lessons and saw what we had to see. We have to stay positive and prepare ourselves for the next game,” he added.

Logarušić also hinted on making some changes in the return game at the National Sports Stadium on Monday.

“We saw a good starting point, we have to refresh the team with some new players to try what we have to do to get a positive result. We must try and not give them easy goals and also try to score when we get our own chances,” he said.

The outspoken gaffer also opines that the Algerians are not invincible and revealed that his players also felt the same after the game.

“The players came to me after the game telling me that they believed they can get the result on Monday, probably because they saw that the Algerians are not as untouchable as they initially thought. We gave them too much space but it’s part of the game, we just have to learn from our mistakes and prepare for the next one,” explained Logarušić.