Zimbabwe risk an early exit from next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Tournament after being handed a relatively tough draw yesterday.
The tournament will be held from January 14 to February 5 in Libreville, Franceville, Oyem and Port Gentil.
The Warriors, who will be making their third appearance at the continental football showpiece after two previous stints in 2004 and 2006, will have to do it the hard way if they are to entertain any hopes of making it to the next round of the competition after being paired in the same group with North African Algeria, Tunisia and West African giants, Senegal in group B.
Zimbabwe have a decent record against the desert Foxes, Algeria, having played three games, drawing two and winning one.
The two teams met at AFCON in 2004 and the Warriors came out tops winning the match 2-1.
Algeria will be led by English Premier League Player of the 2015/16 season Riyad Mahrez who plies for current English Champions , Leicester City.
However, history accounts for nothing as the better on the day will collect the maximum points.
Also on the list is Senegal, which has been making a mercurial rise from the football graves after a period on the downturn.
The Lions of Terenga have been impressive in the qualifiers and the warriors have a tough opponent to tackle.
The improving Senegal, have in-form Sadio Mane who plays for Liverpool in their ranks and he will pose a huge threat to Zimbabwe.
They have previously met at the same level of the competition in 2006 and the West African giants came out 2-1 winners. This was the last time that Zimbabwe made a dance at AFCON before going into years of a sabbatical due to poor organization at number 53 Livingstone Avenue.
Early preparations are essential if Zimbabwe is to entertain any meaningful hopes of salvaging anything from the group which has been dubbed the group of death.
In other groups, defending champions Ivory Coast have been drawn alongside DR Congo, Togo and Morocco in the first round, reuniting them with the coach who led them to the title in 2015.
Morocco coach Hervey Renard led the Ivoirians to the title in Equatorial Guinea, having also claimed the continental championship with Zambia in 2012.
The heavyweight duo will be favorites to advance from Group C, but face a difficult foe in DR Congo, who have English Premier League players Yannick Bolasie from Everton and Hull City’s Dieumerci Mbokani.
Hosts Gabon will be confident of their passage having been pooled with Burkina Faso, Cameroon and debutants Guinea-Bissau.
Egypt are returning to the tournament for the first time since they won it in 2010 and have been drawn in Group D alongside Ghana, Mali and Uganda.
The finals had been under threat earlier this year when political unrest followed disputed presidential elections that were won, narrowly, by incumbent president Ali Bongo. The situation has calmed, but will be monitored by CAF.
