Warriors Head coach Calisto Pasuwa has apologised on behalf of his Warriors side following their premature elimination from CHAN 2016 being hosted by Rwanda.

The much touted side bowed out of the tournament with still a game to play following their 1 nil loss at the hands of Mali. The team also lost the group D opener against Zambia by a similar scoreline.

The Warriors appeared to have succumbed to immerse pressure to replicate the feat of the class of 2014 which went all the way to the semis.

Pasuwa told ZIFA’s website that they are apologising to the soccer loving nation.

“On behalf of the Zimbabwe 2016 CHAN team, we would like to apologise to members of the football fraternity and the nation at large for early elimination in this year’s CHAN tournament. It is very painful that we missed several chances and sadly we are going back home,” Pasuwa told the Association’s official website www.zifa.org.zw.

Pasuwa defended the use of a youthful team that was dominated by the U23s who participated in this year’s Congo Brazzaville’s African games.

“We used a very youthful team that comprised of the U23s and some of them are debutants in competitions of this nature. The young ones are the future of our senior team and I’m happy they gained a lot of experience.” He added.

The Warriors will now play a dead rubber against Uganda who still have a mathematical chance to proceed to the next round if they win.