WARRIORS stars Tinotenda Kadewere and Marshall Munetsi, the only Zimbabweans playing in the French Ligue 1, meet for the first time on Sunday when their two sides clash in a league match. BY FORTUNE MBELE Kadewere only joined Olympique Lyonnais from second-tier side Le Havre in January and has since established himself, while Munetsi joined Stade de Reims last year and in May, extended his stay by four years. The Warriors gunslinger is Lyon’s man of the moment, whose exploits have taken the club to position three on the league table, while Munetsi’s Stade de Reims are struggling, sitting on position 17 ahead of the Sunday clash at the Park Olympique Lyonnais. Odds favour Lyon, who have gone eight games without tasting a defeat, picking four wins and four draws in which Kadewere has scored his four goals. He was single-handedly in charge of Lyon’s last two wins, netting a brace in the 2-1 win over St Ettiene and the solitary goal against Angers SCO. Kadewere has received rave reviews from ligue1.com ahead of the Sunday tie against Reims as he closes in on Lyon’s leading scorer Memphis Depay, who is on five goals. “Memphis Depay has Tino Kadewere hot on his heels in the goalscoring stakes as Olympique Lyonnais get set to welcome Stade de Reims. It was Kadewere who proved the difference between Lyon and Angers SCO on Sunday, through the Zimbabwean’s second-half strike, his fourth goal in five games, leaving him just one behind the Dutchman, and his side just two points away from Lille and four from Paris Saint Germain (PSG),” ligue1.com said. According to ligue1.com, Depay and Moussa Dembélé have been linked with a move to Spanish giants Barcelona and Lyon’s attack is poised to revolve around Kadewere in the future. Munetsi, a defensive midfielder, who last November managed to contain Brazilian star Neymar Jnr when his side beat PSG 1-0, has the task of making sure his menacing compatriot Kadewere and Depay are kept at bay. Lyon will have to contend with Reims’ Senegalese forward Boulaye Dia, who has banged in eight goals this far, one short of the league’s leading scorer, PSG and France’s star Kylian Mbappé. Munetsi, a regular at Reims, missed the 2-0 defeat to PSG in September after he received his marching orders in the previous 2-1 loss to Metz. He has played all the succeeding five matches, cautioned last week in the 1-0 defeat to Nîmes and in the 2-2 draw against Rennes, substituted in the big 4-0 demolition of Montpellier.
