Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE Mighty Warriors have limited time to search their souls after losing to Angola in the first leg of their penultimate 2026 Women Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Luanda on Thursday.
Instead, they have to immediately recalibrate for the second leg and try to overturn the 2-1 deficit they incurred.
Zimbabwe host the Palancas Negras home away from home at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa next week.
The Mighty Warriors immediately shifted base to South Africa after Thursday’s game, arriving in Pretoria yesterday where they held a recovery training session late on.
Winners of the Angola against Zimbabwe tie, will play Malawi, in the final round of qualification.
The Malawians found themselves with a bye in their bid to book a place at the 2026 WAFCON in Morocco, following the withdrawal of their scheduled opponents, Congo.
Zimbabwe are eager to return to the continental showpiece which they were last part of in 2016.
But after failing to contain the Angolans, who hit the target through double-scorer Aminda Lopes Papel, her goals sandwiching Ruvimbo Mucherera’s maiden strike for Zimbabwe, the Mighty Warriors are not sitting pretty in their quest to be part of the cast in Morocco.
Coach Sithethelelwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda has since reassured that the nation that her charges will be psyched up for the return leg and can overturn the single goal deficit to progress to the next round.
She acknowledged her girls were never up to it in critical phases of play on Thursday.
“Maybe if we can rectify in terms of our finishing, taking those chances then we could be better, 2-1 is a very narrow scoreline that we can cover up in South Africa.
“We need to really maintain the positives that we picked and try really to stabilise defensively, I think we did not manage the distances very well,” said Sibanda.
“Tracking and covering for each other was very slow, if we can manage that and utilise our chances, that narrow deficit can be overturned.”
Sibanda hailed Mucherera’s key input on her Mighty Warriors debut and explained she had to pull her out after she picked a yellow card in the second half to minimise her chances of getting to be booked again and risk missing out the return leg.
“I think she played really well on her debut but we had to pull her out because she was struggling with decision making. It happens with players but we also had to make sure that she wouldn’t be handed another yellow card and be out of the second leg.
“We just have to work really well. I think we are still okay, just a one goal deficit, we can do it in South Africa.
“We just need to cool down, work on our weaknesses and zero in on areas where we struggled especially the distances between lines, the midfield and high up strikers,” added Sibanda.
She also feels the Mighty Warriors must sharpen their scoring tools to be able to outscore Angola by a better margin which will guarantee them progress to the decisive qualification fixture against Malawi.
“We need to really manage it well. We also have to be better in terms of our finishing. I think we will be okay if we manage to rectify that. We need more goals in South Africa because we really created a lot of chances in the first leg but we struggled to get them behind the net.
“We still have some time to prepare for the second leg. The players will be well psyched up for the second leg,” she said.
