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Cape Town - After qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, Kaizer Chiefs and Zimbabwe midfielder Willard Katsande wants to reach the knockout phase of the competition.
Goals from former Chiefs striker Knowledge Musona and current Mamelodi Sundowns duo Khama Billiat and Cuthbert Malajila gave the Warriors an emphatic 3-0 victory over Malawi at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Sunday.
The win helped Kalisto Pasuwa's men secure their qualification with one match left to play in Group L and the excited Katsande praise their fans for the role they played in the Warriors success.
"Obviously, it is a good feeling. I can't believe we have made it, we proved the doubters wrong that were always saying we were going to fail but fortunately today we made history," Katsande told The Herald.
"And also me as the second captain to qualify for AFCON, it means a lot to me. It is a dream come true and I can't take the feeling, you know I am having some goose bumps for qualifying for AFCON as the second captain and it is a great feeling for me.
"And also we need to thank our fans, they came to the party, all the games we played at home without them was not going to be possible," he added.
"I think they deserve the victory, they deserve the qualification and all I can say now is we just need to go and celebrate our victory."
The former Ajax Cape Town midfielder also heaped praise on the quality of players that are in the current national team, which consists of seven players who ply their trade in the South African Premiership.
"It shows the quality we have in the team. We started this journey last year sometime in June, and we travelled with the bus to Malawi and people were laughing at us and they thought maybe we were joking and were just pushovers in this campaign," he added.
"It is emotional to qualify against all the odds and I don't have much to say. I think the credit must go to the entire team and the technical team.
"We are going to Gabon. We are not going there to just add up the numbers but we need to stand our ground and also we are going there as underdogs but we need to prove and we are going to upset a lot of teams because we have the quality to win.
"The squad we have at the moment has a lot of talent and we are going to make history and go beyond the group stages."
