THE Zimbabwe Warriors face a tough fight in their bid for a berth at the 2014 World Cup Finals after drawing continental giants Egypt for the preliminery qualification campaign.
The draw for the next edition of the World’s premier international football tournament was made in the Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
52 African countries were drawn into ten groups and will battle it out for the five slots reserved for the continent at the Finals.
The group winners will then be paired into two five home-and-away series for Round Three of the qualification campaign with the winners making it to the Finals.
Meanwhile, along with Egypt, the Warriors must get past Guinea and either the Comoros or neighbours, Mozambique to have any chance of making it to the Finals in Brazil.
The domestic football controlling body, ZIFA, is keen to see the country qualify for their first ever World Cup Finals having painfully missed out on the 2010 edition of the tournament held across the boarder in South Africa.
But ZIFA will have hoped to avoid tricky past customers in Egypt and Guinea.
Egypt are the only country in Group G to have qualified for the World Cup Finals after making it to the 1990 event.
The Warriors have played the North Africans some six times in the last two decades losing four times and winning once along with one draw.
In the other draws, South Africa have a face what could be a relatively easy passed to Brazil after drawing neighbours the Central African Republic, neighbours Botswana and either Somalia or Ethiopia in Group A.
AFRICAN ZONE DRAW
Group A: South Africa, Botswana, Central African Republic, Somalia or Ethiopia
Group B: Tunisia, Cape Verde Islands, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea or Madagascar
Group C: Cote d'Ivoire, Morocco, Gambia, Chad or Tanzania
Group D: Ghana, Zambia, Sudan, Lesotho or Burundi
Group E: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Sao Tome e Principe or Congo
Group F: Nigeria, Malawi, Seychelles or Kenya, Djibouti or Namibia
Group G: Egypt, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Comoros or Mozambique
Group H: Algeria, Mali, Benin, Eritrea or Rwanda
Group I: Cameroon, Libya, Guinea-Bissau or Togo, Swaziland or Congo DR
Group J: Senegal, Uganda, Angola, Mauritius or Liberia