Mighty Warriors in Africa Women Cup of Nations draw

By Grace Chingoma

The Mighty Warriors will know their 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations group opponents on Monday when CAF conduct the draw in Cairo, Egypt.

ZIFA have entered the senior women’s national team to participate in this competition.

The Zimbabwe senior women’s national team will join other 43 nations that have entered to participate in the latest AWCN following the cancellation of the 2020 edition due to Covid-19.

Mighty Warriors coach, Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda, will be hoping for a fair draw as the team hopes to qualify again for the women’s Nations Cup finals after missing out on the previous edition.

The Mighty Warriors’ fortunes have taken a knock since they made history to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games.

In the previous draw, the Mighty Warriors were paired against Mauritius in the first round. They were then expected to meet the winner between Zambia and Mozambique.

However, the matches, which were scheduled to take place last year in March, were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic before the tournament was eventually called off.

The Mighty Warriors have since been inactive and the women’s league recently started their pre-season preparations after getting the green light from the Government.

At the same draw, CAF officials will also conduct draws for the Under-17 and Under-20 World Cup qualifiers.

It is not yet clear if ZIFA have entered the women’s youth teams.

The association this week revealed that they are not going to enter youth teams into competitions so that they build from the grassroots stage.

The Zimbabwe Under-20 women’s soccer team had reached the second round of the World Cup qualifiers last year before the qualifiers were called off.

Teams will start afresh to bid for qualification for 2022 competitions. The Herald