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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Under-20 coach Rose Mugadza says women football doesn’t have any small teams anymore.

Mugadza was responding to the draw where the Mighty Warriors and their Under-20 team were handed fair pairings in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday evening.

The Mighty Warriors were drawn against Mauritius in the first round of the 2020 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualifiers.

They will face the winner between Zambia and Mozambique should they progress to the second and last qualifying round.

The national Under-20 team, who will be taking part in the Under-20 Women’s World Cup African qualifiers, were drawn against Malawi in the preliminary round.

Former Mighty Warriors coach, Mugadza, who was appointed head of the  Under-20 team this year and guided the side at the COSAFA tournament, said they will not take Malawi lightly.

“Of late, I have discovered there are no longer any minnows in women’s football,’’ she said.

“All teams have improved and are taking seriously their grassroots development programmes and schools football which feed into their national teams.

“Malawi’s school league is vibrant and if we want to win we have to be on top of our game, every game is difficult.’’

Mugadza says she will use the COSAFA participation as her foundation in building a competitive outfit which will begin the preliminary qualifiers in January.

“At least we have the core of the team we had for COSAFA tournament,’’ said Mugadza.

“Three quarters of that team is still eligible to play, we have the backbone although we need to work on goalkeeping and our strike-force.

“We left a good number of players who didn’t have passports when we went to South Africa.’’

Mighty Warriors coach, Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda, and her troops missed the last Nations Cup in Ghana after they lost to Zambia in the last round.

Full Draw Africa Women Cup of Nations

Zambia v Mozambique; Zimbabwe v Mauritius ; Malawi v Eswatini; Namibia v Botswana; Gabon v Central Africa; Angola v Congo; DR Congo v Sao Tome; Tanzania v Kenya; Burundi v Uganda; Ethiopia v Djibouti; Liberia v Senegal; Guinea Bissau v Gambia; Togo v Niger; Algeria v Burkina Faso.

Full Draw Under-20 Women’s World Cup African Qualifiers

Malawi v Zimbabwe; Tanzania v Uganda; Burundi v Ethiopia; Malawi v Zimbabwe; Namibia v Botswana; Zambia v South Africa; DR Congo v Gabon; Burkina Faso v Gambia, Mauritania v Guinea Bissau; Senegal v Sierra Leone; Congo v Angola; Liberia v Guinea; Egypt v Morocco.