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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’s Cosafa Cup Group B draw has been described as a good preparatory platform for the Warriors’ Total African Nations Championships (Chan) clash against Namibia in July.

The Warriors were drawn alongside Mozambique, Seychelles and Madagascar for the regional tournament and Warriors’ manager Wellington Mpandare believes their opponents will provide a good yardstick for the lads as they seek a fifth straight appearance at the 2018 Chan finals.

“The Cosafa Cup draw for us looks tough, it’s not easy really, but it’s good for the nation, especially if we manage to go all the way to the final because immediately after that we take on Namibia in the Chan qualifiers,” said Mpandare.

He said their Cosafa opponents all use the same set of players for other qualifiers such as the Total Nations Cup, Cosafa, Chan and World Cup qualifiers.

“The teams in our group use basically the same players for other tournaments, meaning there is cohesion and understanding compared to us, who sometimes rotate between local and foreign-based players, but if we go all the way to the final of the Cosafa Cup, it will give us an edge in the Chan qualifier,” said Mpandare.

The Warriors take on Namibia on July 14 before playing host to the same side in the return leg in Harare set for July 21. The winner of the tie will then square off against either Comoros or Lesotho for the final berth for the finals set for Kenya next year.

The final of the Cosafa Cup will be held on July 9 before Zimbabwe engage Namibia a week later.

Zifa and Cosafa president Philip Chiyangwa believes it would be a huge embarrassment for the Warriors to bow out in the preliminary stages of the Cosafa Cup for the third successive time. They get the ball rolling against Mozambique on June 26 and take on Madagascar two days later and round off their group matches against Seychelles on June 30.

Zimbabwe have been to every Chan tournament since its inception in 2009 in Cote D’Ivore, but their best finish was a fourth place position in South Africa in 2014 where they lost 0-1 to Nigeria in the third-place play-off.

In the last Chan tournament held in Rwanda, the Warriors managed just a single point from their 1-1 draw against Uganda, having lost by identical 1-0 score lines to Zambia and Mali.

@skhumoyo2000