Zimbabwe boss Sunday Chidzambwa has commented on his side's shock 4-0 drubbing by DR Congo in their final Africa Cup of Nations Group A encounter on Sunday.
Despite having twice overcome the very same Congo outfit during the Afcon 2019 qualifiers, the Warriors were handed a footballing lesson by the Leopards, who put four goals past their opponents without reply on the weekend.
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With Zimbabwe picking up only one point from their three group games, and scoring only one goal while conceding six, Chidzambwa gave a brutally honest assessment of his side's performance at the tournament.
"We did not play well in all the departments," he said after the match against the Congolese.
"But during the warm-up, our first-choice goalkeeper got injured – but these are not excuses at all. We played badly. We conceded easy goals and it was a bad performance on our part. We need to go home and rewind our performances and find a way forward."
Chidzambwa also suggested that the squad needs a new approach for the future.
"If you look at our game, we were very slow. So there was that element and we were chasing the game and couldn't come back," he added.
"I take the blame and maybe in the near future we need to (try) a different approach. The players we picked must deliver, so we take the blame."
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The result confirmed the Warriors' elimination from the tournament at the group stage, while DR Congo could still advance to the knockout phase of the competition as one of the best third-placed teams, provided other results in other groups go in their favour.