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Sunday Chidzambwa

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
WARRIORS’ coach Sunday Chidzambwa is this week expected to name his provisional squad ahead of their defence of the Cosafa Cup in South Africa.

The Warriors’ first match in defence of the Cosafa Cup title will be against Group B winners in the quarter-final stage.

The 18th edition of the Cosafa Cup will make history, as all 14 members of the association will take part in the regional showpiece from May 27 to June 9 for the first time ever.

Group B has Angola, Botswana, Mauritius and Malawi.

Hosts South Africa will take on the winner of Group A, which has Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros Islands and Seychelles.

The other two quarter-finals will see four-time winners Zambia clashing with Namibia and Lesotho taking on Swaziland.

“We have been busy with the list, but we hope to announce it this week and as the coach said, it will be made up of players that are likely to be part of the Total African Nations Cup qualifiers that get underway in September.

“ This is meant to give the coach ample time to fine tune his charges, as there is little time for friendly matches before the Afcon qualifiers get underway,” said manager Wellington Mpandare.

Zimbabwe will hope for a willingness from both the players and their clubs since the Cosafa tournament is not on the Fifa calendar and, therefore, not mandatory for clubs to release players.

The Warriors are six goals shy of reaching an unprecedented century of goals in the history of the tournament, whose all-time leading goal scorer is the legendary Peter Ndlovu with seven goals to his name.