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Sports Reporter
MIGHTY Warriors assistant coach Johane Chikaola says she was impressed with the team’s performance in Johannesburg where they drew 2-2 with Banyana Banyana in an international friendly on Saturday.
But she said they were not resting on their laurels until they achieve their mission of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations in Namibia in October.

The team returned home on Sunday evening and the players have since returned to their bases but the technical team wants another lengthy training camp ahead of the last Afcon qualifier.

They will host Zambia on the weekend of May 24-25 before travelling for the return tie a fortnight later in Lusaka.

The team which wins will then qualify for the women’s version of Afcon in Windhoek.

In Johannesburg the Mighty Warriors raced to a 2-0 lead courtesy of a penalty from forward Rutendo Makore and Majoury Nyaumwe.

“The game was okay in the sense that we played very well despite training for only two days before the match,” said Chikaola.

“At one time we had a healthy lead but the girls missed a lot of chances especially Mavis Chirandu, Rutendo Makore and Felistas Muzongondi.

“We allowed silly goals and this was due to poor communication between defenders and the goalkeeper and the equaliser came at the end of the match.”

He said the pitch was also a bit heavy and affected his players who tired quickly.

However, the Cyclone Stars gaffer said there were a lot of positives to carry from that game.

“We are going to meet as the technical team and come up with some proposals which would be tabled to the executive,” he said.

“It is almost a month before we play Zambia and we are looking at maybe starting our camp in early May.

“Zambia are improving and we have observed they are also preparing well for us so we don’t want to relax and be caught off guard.

“We know each other and games between us have always been intense even though we prevail in the end.

“But we want to qualify for the Afcon and don’t want to leave anything to chance or let complacency cost us at the end.

“We want to be adequately prepared for the final qualifying round matches and go to the finals in Namibia.”