Warriors to know fate today

ZIMBABWE will know their opponents for the 2023 AFCON qualifiers, in a draw set to be conducted in Cameroon today, at 5pm.

The Warriors are back home after crashing out of the 2021 Nations Cup finals.

Norman Mapeza’s finished bottom of their group, despite an impressive 2-1 win over Guinea, in their final match.

They had lost 0-1 to Senegal and 1-2 to Malawi in their opening two matches.

CAF confirmed the draw in a statement:

“The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Preliminary Round draw will be conducted on Friday, 21 January 2022 at 16h00 (15h00 GMT, 17h00 CAT) in Douala (Cameroon).”

Zimbabwe, who are ranked number 29 in Africa, will avoid the preliminary round as they are part of the 42 nations to be drawn into 12 groups of four teams. The other 12 teams will be determined by the preliminary round.

“The Preliminary Round will see the 12 leastranked teams divided into two levels.

“The six highest-ranked teams will play against the six least-ranked teams (the 1st leg will be played at home of the lower-ranked teams).

“The six aggregate winners will join the 42 highest-ranked teams into the Group Stage of the qualifiers.

“Level 1: Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Gambia, South Sudan, Mauritius

“Level 2: Chad, Sao Tome & Principe, Djibouti, Somalia, Seychelles, Eritrea.”

The draw comes at a time when a number of players have promised the fans to bounce back stronger after their early exit from the 2021 AFCON finals.

Captain Knowledge Musona, who has hinted he could walk away from international football, said they expected to do better in Cameroon.

“Not the result we hoped for but we celebrate even the small victories,” tweeted Musona yesterday.