Vusumuzi Dube
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
JUST like they did last year, Zimbabwe will once again face Botswana as well as East Africans Tanzania in the group stage of the 2021 Cosafa Women’s Championship to be held in Gqeberha, South Africa next month.
The Mighty Warriors, winners of the regional competition in 2011 were on Thursday drawn in group B together with last year’s beaten finalists Botswana, the guest nation duo of Tanzania and South Sudan in the tournament that runs from 15-26 September. Last year, Zimbabwe took on Tanzania in their first group fixture and lost 1-0 before they lost by a similar score line against Botswana who went on to lose the final 2-1 to South Africa.
Banyana Banyana, who have won the last four championships staged, will take on Angola, Malawi and Mozambique in Group A, with only the top team guaranteed a place in the semifinals.
Group C is headed by 2019 finalists Zambia, who have been so close to winning the tournament in the past but remain without success, as well as Namibia, Eswatini and another guest nation Uganda, who were an 11th hour entry after the Comoros Islands withdrew late.
Only the top teams in each pool advance, as does the best-placed runner-up, so it will be all to play for in what has become a hugely successful and entertaining tournament on the African football calendar.
This year’s competition will take on additional significance as it comes just a month before the start of the qualifiers for the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations that are scheduled to begin in October, providing competing sides with the chance to fine-tune their plans for their bid to reach the continental showpiece.
Due to the coronavirus, the competition will be played under strict Covid-19 protocols, which include a bio-secure bubble for all teams and officials involved. This means matches will unfortunately be played behind closed doors, as was the case in 2020, but fans will be able to follow all the action with every game streamed live on www.cosafa.tv.
2021 Cosafa Women’s Championship draw
Group A
South Africa
Angola
Malawi
Mozambique
Group B
Botswana
Tanzania
South Sudan
Zimbabwe
Group C
Zambia
Namibia
Eswatini
Uganda
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