‘We are not under pressure!’
THE Mighty Warriors are not under any pressure to emulate their male counterparts, who lifted the Cosafa Castle Cup in South Africa in July.
The Warriors lifted their fifth Cosafa Cup at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Centre following an impressive 3-1 victory over trans-Zambezi rivals Zambia.
They also provided the player of the tournament in Knox Mutizwa, while Ovidy Karuru grabbed the Golden Boot award.
The two nations could once again meet in the final on Sunday depending on how they fare in this afternoon’s semi-finals.
Zambia take on three-time champions South Africa at 1PM before the Mighty Warriors lock horns with guest nation Kenya at 4PM.
Mighty Warriors’ head coach Sithethelelwe Sibanda said they were not under any pressure to emulate their male counterparts.
“To be honest, we are not under pressure at all to emulate our male colleagues, who lifted the Cosafa Castle Cup in South Africa. We are just going to play our normal game and let the rest take care of itself, not that we want to emulate the Warriors,” said Sibanda.
She admitted that the team went through a gruelling and suspense filled 24 hours as they awaited the result of the Kenya and Swaziland encounter, which had a bearing on the Mighty Warriors advancing to the semi-finals.
The Mighty Warriors had put their chances of qualifying to the knockout stages in tatters when they drew 3-3 with Malawi on Sunday afternoon, but with Kenya beating Swaziland 1-nil and qualifying to the semis as Group B winners, the doors opened for Zimbabwe as the best runners-up from the three groups.
Speaking about their encounter against Kenya this afternoon, Sibanda said her technical team had a plan for the Harambee Starlets, who she said were compact and have a better understanding of each other, as they have been together for a longer time compared to the Mighty Warriors.