MIGHTY Warriors have been handed Namibia in the 2018 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWC) first round qualifiers, which begin next year, with the Sithethelelwe Sibanda-coached side looking to make a quick return to the continental football extravaganza. BY HENRY MHARA
Zimbabwe qualified for the last edition of the AWC finals held in Cameroon last year and the team has been handed what looks like an easy first-round passage towards qualification.
Sibanda’s side will travel to Namibia on February 26 for the first round first leg, before playing hosts the following weekend.
The two nations are part of 20 teams that will play in the first round, with the 10 aggregate winners qualifying to the second and final round, where they will join Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and South Africa, who received byes in the first-round playoffs.
The 14 teams will be drawn for the second round, with seven winners qualifying for the finals and will be joined by hosts Ghana to complete the line-up for the November tournament.
Sibanda yesterday said she was happy with the first round opponents and was expecting her team to progress to the next stage.
“Namibia are a very good side from what we saw from their performance at the Cosafa. They didn’t do well, but we will not read much into that because every team has its own weaknesses. We will have to prepare well if we are to get a positive result.
We will sit with the other technical team members and come up with our preparation plan that we will submit to our superiors. If we prepare well, we will qualify for the finals,” she said.
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Namibia failed to go past the group stages at the recently-held Cosafa tournament, winning one match and losing the other two, while Zimbabwe reached the finals, where they lost to South Africa.
Zimbabwe fielded a depleted side at the Cosafa tournament, with some of their stars such as Emmaculate Msipa, Mavis Chirandu and Felistas Muzongondi, unavailable, as they were undergoing military training. Other regulars such as Rudo Neshamba, Samkeliso Zulu and Erina Jeke missed out due to injuries.
“By the time the qualifiers begin, I am hoping all the players would be available. The other good thing is that those who came in, some of whom were playing for the team for the first time, did very well, so there will be competition for places in the team, which is good,” Sibanda said.
The AWC tournament will determine who will represent Africa at Women’s World Cup tournament to be hosted by France in 2019, with the top three teams getting the tickets.
2018 Afcon first round fixtures
Namibia v Zimbabwe, Senegal v Algeria, Libya v Ethiopia, Morocco v Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone v Mali, Burkina Faso v Gambia, Congo v Central African Republic, Kenya v Uganda, Lesotho v Swaziland, Tanzania v Zambia
