ZIMBABWE’S Warriors will open the 2019 AFCON finals with a showdown against Mohamed Salah and his Pharaohs of Egypt at the Cairo Stadium on June 21 in a repeat of the national team’s first match at the continent’s premier football showcase in Tunisia 15 years ago.

The Warriors were the first team to be picked at the draw, held against a spectacular background of the Pyramids, and were immediately thrust into Group A which is headlined by the hosts who will be staging the tournament for the first time in 13 years.

Sunday Chidzambwa and his troops will also have another duel against the DRC, who were in their qualifying group, and Uganda, in a tough Group A.

The Warriors took four points from the Congolese, beating them 2-1 in Kinshasa before the two teams battled to a 1-1 draw at the National Sports Stadium where Knox Mutizwa’s goal, which could have given the hosts a two-goal lead, was controversially disallowed by Egyptian match officials.
And, at the end of the qualifiers, the Warriors found themselves enjoying a two-point cushion, at the top of their group, having the luxury of knowing that even if they had donated the three points they won in Kinshasa to the DRC, they would still have made it to the AFCON finals.

The Warriors have played the Pharaohs at the Nations Cup before – the Egyptians were the first opponents Chidzambwa and his men faced in their first game at the AFCON finals in Tunisia in 2004 in a match the Pharaohs won 2-1.State media