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Sithethelelwe Sibanda

Sikhumbuzo MoyoSenior, Sports Reporter

THE Mighty Warriors do not have to sit on their laurels and believe that they have made it into the next round when they take on the Brave Gladiators of Namibia in the second leg of the Africa Women Cup of Nations qualifier at Rufaro Stadium tomorrow.

Despite carrying a 2-0 victory from the first leg encounter at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on Thursday evening, Zimbabwe Mighty Warriors coach, Sithethelelwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda, is still cautious ahead of the encounter and called for tactical discipline on the part of her players, who she said also lacked match fitness.

Marjory Nyahumwe, who plays for Correctional Services, put the Mighty Warriors ahead in the 24th minute before Mavis Chirandu, another member of a uniformed services team, killed the match as a contest in the 90th minute. Chirandu plays for Black Rhinos.

“We are happy with the win yes, but I was really worried about our match fitness. Namibia were better prepared than us but good character from our team played a huge part in the win as we clearly lacked match fitness so I think we need to be tactically disciplined in the second leg,” said Sibanda.

Her Namibian counterpart, Brian Isaacs, blamed the defeat of his team on lack of concentration which was coupled with lack of match fitness.

“We conceded two goals due to a lack of concentration and you could see that our poor match fitness also played a part in the match. At the break I told the ladies to believe and have more confidence and that showed a bit in the game but overall we could not create enough or score from the few we had.

But I still believe we can go to Zimbabwe and do our best yet again and see what we can get from it,” Isaacs told The Namibian .

Zimbabwe will do the job  tomorrow without their deadly striker, Rutendo Makore, who still has not recovered from an ankle injury that saw her miss the first leg encounter in Namibia.

“She is still injured and therefore will not be  available for the return leg,” said Zifa’s Communications manager, Xolisani Gwesela.

The winner of tomorrow’s encounter will square off against either Tanzania or Zambia for the final qualifying ticket to the finals set for Ghana later this year. Tanzania and Zambia played to a 3-3 draw in the first leg and the two countries meet in Zambia tomorrow for the second leg.

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

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

The eight team continental tournament in Ghana will also serve as a qualification tournament for Women’s World Cup finals to be hosted by France in 2019.