BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
ZIMBABWE international forward Tinotenda Kadewere marked his return from injury in style after scoring his 19th league goal of the season as his French Ligue 2 football side Le Havre AC ended a five-match winless streak with a comfortable 3-0 win over Châteauroux on Friday night.
Kadewere had missed Le Havre’s last four league matches due to a hamstring injury he suffered during the goalless draw against Lens at the start of last month.
The 24 year-old prolific striker’s absence coincided with a dismal run of form for Le Havre as the French side managed two draws and lost as many matches during his spell on the sidelines.
Kadewere’s much-awaited return on Friday night proved to be the tonic Le Havre AC needed to get their promotion bid to the French top-flight back on track.
The Zimbabwean frontman proved why he is highly valued at his club as he wasted no time to make an impact against Châteauroux by scoring the opening goal after just three minutes.
Kadewere also created the second goal, which was finished off by his Senegalese strike partner Jamal Thiaré 10 minutes later before an injury time penalty from midfielder Dina Ebimbe secured a comfortable 3-0 victory for the Sky-and-Navy.
The goal by Kadewere took his tally in the French Ligue 2 to 19 goals, three clear at the top of the goal-scoring charts from Clermont Foot’s Austrian forward Adrian Grbić, who has scored 16 goals this season.
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Le Havre coach Paul Le Guen admitted that his side, which is now in sixth position on the log, had missed Kadewere’s accuracy in front of goal during his absence due to injury.
“We are much better with Kadewere, he helps the team considerably making others more confident, it’s obvious,” Le Guen told beIN Sports after the match.
With promotion to Ligue 1 reserved for the top three teams at the end of the campaign, Le Guen, whose side is eight points adrift of third-placed Ajaccio with 11 matches remaining, insisted that his team still has a slim chance of earning promotion.
“We are definitely not out of it yet. We have to hold on and be ready to seize the opportunities. It would be nice to move to fourth or fifth place … and after that, everything is possible. We are always a little worried when we don’t win, but we try to find solutions. I knew that with the return of the two in front, it could change things. “ It’s better when you have this power, this offensive threat. It changes things.”
Kadewere is set to join Ligue 1 side Lyon at the end of the campaign following his $16.6 million four-and-a-half-year deal agreed during the January transfer window period.
His return to fitness, meanwhile, is a timely boost for newly appointed Warriors coach Zdravko Logarusic as he is firmly in his plans ahead of the back-to-back 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Algeria later this month.
