Steve Vickers BBC Sport, Harare

Fans believed team was cursed

Sunday, 6 July 2003, will forever be remembered as the day the greatest moment in the history of Zimbabwean football arrived.

The Warriors qualified for the finals of the African Nations Cup for the first time as the best-placed runners-up after Sierra Leone failed to win in their Group Seven game in Gabon.

CAN qualifying Group 6

"The jinx has finally been broken. Zimbabwe has qualified..." was how Sunday's main news bulletin on state television reported the story.

Zimbabweans have little to cheer them as the country struggles with a severe economic crisis but the Nations Cup success has given almost everyone here a rare cause for celebration.

Qualification for Tunisia 2004 also means the notorious 'nearly men' of Africa tag has been shaken off.

And for those of a superstitious disposition, it means Ghanaian Ben Koufie's alleged curse has finally been broken!

Marimo is trusted by players

The Warriors may have sneaked in through the back door but no one cares about that.

What matters is the fact that more than two decades of failure have been ended.

They reckon the phrase: 'snatching victory from the jaws of defeat' should be applied to someone else now!

Over the years many fans began to believe that the team was under a curse, remembering the words of then coach Ben Koufie in 1991.

Angry at the Zimbabwe Football Association's lack of planning, an angry Koufie suggested that not even a coach from the moon would help the national team to qualify for any major tournament under those circumstances.

Indeed, many different coaches have tried and failed to take Zimbabwe to the promised land.

They include the German Reinhard Fabisch, Dutchman Clemens Westerhof and England's Iain Porterfield.

Incredibly, against all expectations, it is a local coach, Sunday Marimo, who has broken new ground.