MATHEW Rusike believes the Warriors have set a good foundation for future success.

The winger said though defeat was painful at the 2017 AFCON finals in Gabon, the experience gained by players will in the future help Zimbabwe make history.

Zimbabwe was knocked out of  in the group stages, coming out only with a point in a group that had Senegal, Algeria and Tunisia.

“I think it was a good foundation for us you know. We had not qualified for over 10 years. I feel every house needs a good foundation to build on. Our preparations were not as smooth as we wanted as other teams out there,” he said.

“And we were the lowest ranked nation going into the cup and we went with high expectations. We wanted to win of course but in football one team wins and one has to lose,” he said.

Mathew believes they lacked experience in Gabon.

“Experience decided it massively. If you watched the Algerian game, we were on top of the situation for most part of the game, but small mistakes and our inability to captalise when we should have, cost us the game. So they have the experience and they have that week in and out,” he said.