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Sports Reporter
MIGHTY Warriors captain Felistas Muzongondi says they are ready to face Tanzania in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers qualification tie on Friday in Dar es Salaam.

After spending two weeks in Bulawayo preparing for the encounter, the senior women’s side is expected to leave for Tanzania today. The game against Tanzania will be their opening encounter in the battle to qualify for the continental competition to be held in Yaoundé, Cameroon later this year. The winner between Zimbabwe and Tanzania will meet either Zambia or Namibia in the second and last qualifying round of the continental showpiece.

Muzongondi said they were raring to go, but warned her teammates to guard against complacency when the two teams meet.

“We are ready for the match. We are promising that we are going there to win, that’s our aim.

“The morale is high because we qualified for the Olympics and now we want to qualify for the Africa Nations Cup and it’s a big motivation for us going into this match.

“We qualified (for the Olympics) against Cameroon and now we are facing Tanzania but we don’t have to underrate them, we have to play for the whole 90 minutes and keep focused until the last whistle. We have to encourage each other and play as a team. We don’t have to put ourselves under pressure because it will destroy everything that we have been doing and planning all this time,” said Muzongondi.

The Shadreck Mlauzi-coached side, which was in Bulawayo for the past two weeks, arrived in Harare yesterday and had an anti-doping session in the afternoon.

“We had an anti-doping session in the afternoon with educators from ZOC and SRC. The programme was about conscientising the girls about performance-enhancing drugs, banned drugs and substances.

“It was about equipping the girls with knowledge of doping,” said Mlauzi. The team will hold their last training session this afternoon at Rufaro and Mlauzi feels they are ready for their opponents.

Team:

Goalkeepers: Lindiwe Magwede, Chido Dzingirai.

Defenders: Nobuhle Majika, (vice captain), Sheila Makoto, Eunice Chibanda, Lynett Mutokuto, Daisy Kaitano, Patience Mujuru, Nobukhosi Ncube.

Midfielders: Emmaculate Msipa, Viola Ndlovu, Rejoice Kapfumvuti, Feslistas Muzongondi (captain), Marjory Nyaumwe, Mavis Chirandu.

Strikers: Rudo Neshamba, Erina Jeke, Samkelisiwe Zulu