The Brave Warriors yesterday received their fixtures against Zimbabwe, Mozambique and tournament guest participants, Senegal, in Group C of next month’s Cosafa Cup.

Organisers of the 2021 Cosafa Cup yesterday also announced some amendments to the kick off date of the competition, moving the tournament’s start date to a day earlier than originally planned. 

The competition, which was initially planned to start on 7 July, will now run from 6 to 18 July in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The fixtures will see the Brave Warriors opening their 2021 Cosafa Cup campaign against Senegal on

8 July before taking on regional rivals Zimbabwe on 11 July. Their last group match will be against foes Mozambique on 14 July.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions in South Africa, all matches will be played behind closed doors without fans. The limit on the number of people that can be on site at the venues means there will be no media present either.

All matches will, however, be live on SuperSport and streamed on COSAFA.TV, allowing fans from across the world access to live action from the safety of their homes. 

For this year, the competition will take on a new format, with the 12 teams split into three groups each containing four teams. This is to ensure each side plays a minimum of three matches. 

The top team in each pool, as well as the best second-place finisher, will advance to the semi-finals. There will be no Plate competition this year. 

The 19 previous editions of the regional competition have seen some great performances that have been written into the folklore of southern African football, but only five nations have lifted the coveted trophy: Zimbabwe (six wins), followed by Zambia (five), South Africa (four), Angola (three) and Namibia (one).