WARRIORS coach, Kalisto Pasuwa (pictured) and fans alike will wait anxiously to discover which group the Zimbabwe senior men’s national team will be placed in, as the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals draw takes place today.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
In today’s draw, Zimbabwe will be in Pot 4 alongside Togo, Uganda and Guinea Bissau, whom they all cannot be placed in the same group with.
But the Warriors can draw either Algeria, Ghana, champions Ivory Coast or hosts Gabon.
In Pot Two, there is Tunisia, Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal, while Pot Three contains former champions Cameroon, Senegal, Morocco and Egypt.
In coming up with the seedings, the Caf organising committee considered performances at Afcon finals in 2012, 2013 and 2015 among other criteria and the Warriors missed out on those three editions of the tournament.
The qualifiers for the 2013, 2015 and 2017 tournaments were also considered.
While Zimbabwe did well in the qualifiers for the January tournament after qualifying with a game to spare following their victory over Malawi in June, the 2013 and 2015 campaigns were disastrous and the Warriors paid for the poor showing in those qualifiers.
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The Warriors, who captured the imagination of many with their near-flawless game despite being subjected to difficult conditions in the build-up to their matches to become the only team from the southern region to qualify for the Gabon tournament, could, with better preparations, go and defy odds.
Warriors’ team manager, Shariff Mussa was expected to leave for Libreville, Gabon, yesterday ahead of the draw.
The continental football showpiece, to be held in Gabon, will be played from January 14 to February 5.
Highly-rated Uganda’s Serbian coach, Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic, whose team lost 2-0 to the Warriors in a friendly match, has tipped the Warriors to go all the way.
