Gladiators drawn with Zimbabwe in qualifiers

WINDHOEK – Namibia’s Brave Gladiators have been drawn to face the Mighty Warriors of Zimbabwe in a two-legged 2018 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWNC) qualifier scheduled to take place between 26 February and 6 March 2018.

The first leg of the first round will be held in Windhoek before the Gladiators travel to Harare for the return leg on dates yet to be confirmed by the football associations of both countries.

Speaking to Nampa on Friday, Brave Gladiators coach, Brian Isaacs said he was happy with the draw, expressing confidence that his team can beat the Mighty Warriors as they had an opportunity to watch them play at the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe recently.

“They are a god team who are well balanced and have a deadly striker (Rutendo Makore) who netted 13 times in five games. But we just have to prepare well because they are beatable,” Isaacs said.

He stated that having been appointed to coach the Namibian team on a short notice in August, he was happy to have participated in the Cosafa Women’s championship as it made him assess the strength and weakness of his and other teams in the region.

The winner between Namibia and Zimbabwe will face either Zambia or Tanzania in the second round.

Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa have been given a bye in the first round to the second round.

Nigeria are the defending champions African champions following their triumph in the 2016 edition held in Cameroon.

The eight team continental tournament will be held in Ghana from 17 November to 1 December 2018 and will also serves as a qualification tournament for Women’s World Cup to be hosted by France in 2019.

Complete first round (26 February – 6 March 2018) fixtures: Senegal v Algeria; Libya v Ethiopia; Morocco v Ivory Coast; Sierra Leone v Mali; Burkina Faso v Gambia; Congo v Central Africa; Kenya v Uganda; Lesotho v Swaziland; Tanzania v Zambia; and Namibia v Zimbabwe.