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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Cameroon women’s football team arrived in the country yesterday with their coach Enow Ngachu confident that his charges will sail past the Mighty Warriors tomorrow at Rufaro in the final qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games.
The West Africans are carrying a slender 2-1 lead over Zimbabwe.
Speaking soon after the 31-member delegation’s arrival at the Harare International Airport yesterday, Ngachu made it clear that they were “here to qualify” for next year’s Olympic Games to be staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“Our strategy is to qualify, we came here to qualify.
“We will have to score goals and we have to defend, so we have worked on all aspects. We know it’s going to be very tough but our main target is to qualify for Rio de Janeiro.
“Our chances are intact, we had a victory during the first leg and it’s the second leg.
“I think pressure will be on the Zimbabwean side because we are leading, so we just need to be careful.
“Like I said earlier, it’s a good side but we have been working very well, very hard . . . we are quite confident and very optimistic,” said Ngachu.
The Cameroon coach said they are here to prove a point after competing at the FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by Canada in June where they were knocked out by China in the second round.
They came second at the African Games held in Congo Brazzaville when they lost 1-0 to Ghana in the finals.
Ngachu, however, said they were not underrating their opponents and will have to be cautious in their approach.
“We are here to represent Cameroonians.
“We are here to show one more time that we merited our qualification during the World Cup and we are here to qualify.
“They (Zimbabwe) are good, if they are at this level it means they are really good. I think they have a very good side, they have talented players and during the away leg they played very well.
“We need to be careful as I said earlier. I think it’s going to be a very tough game but, however, we have prepared again also to make sure that we qualify for the Olympic Games.
“We have been working since 2014 and our main objective is to qualify for Rio de Janeiro, we came here to qualify and we shall do everything to qualify,” said Ngachu.
Cameroon’s midfielder Yoh Carine shared the same sentiments with her coach as she said they were going to pull through.
“Sunday’s game here is the fourth round qualifier . . . I know we are going to qualify. So we are just going to keep on working hard even though we know it’s not going to be an easy task. But we are going to put more effort.
“They played very well, we know it’s a good team too, so we just have to concentrate in order for us to qualify for the Olympic Games,” said Carine.
Online Reporter