It was all celebration at the Gombani Stadium in Pemba when Zanzibar Heroes edged Kenya 1-0 to reach the final of the Mapinduzi Cup 2025.

Ali Khatib ‘Inzagi’ netted the lone goal in the fourth minute of added time to give Zanzibar Heroes the vital win on Friday night. Khatib rose to nod home from a well taken corner kcik.

The tough encounter saw the two teams miss some good scoring chances with Moses Shumah for Kenya and Zanzibar’s skipper Feisal Salum ‘Toto” call coming close.

Later Kenya’s Aboud Omar was shown a straight red card following an altercation with the referee in the 70th minute. But Zanzibar also had a player sent off later in the match.

Zanzibar Heroes who beat Tanzania 1-0 and lost by the same margin to Burkina Faso will now face the same West African team on January 13^th, 2025 in the final.

Both Burkina Faso and Kenya are using the Mapinduzi Cup to prepare their teams ahead of the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2024 to be hosted jointly by  Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania February 1-28^th, 2025.

Table standing

                          P   W   D    L   GF  GA GD Pts

Burkina Faso   3    2    1     0     4     1     3     7

Zanzibar          3    2    0     1      2     1     1    6

Kenya              3    1    1     1     3     2     1     4

Tanzania          3    0    0     3    0    5    -5     0