At long last, the Mighty Warriors know the identity of their opponents!

They will have their work cut with clashes against hosts Cameroon, South Africa and Egypt in Group A when the 10th African women’s Cup of Nations gets underway in November. 

It is not exactly the group of death but this is certainly a pool capable of causing coach Shadreck Mlauzi huge discomfort.

The Mighty Warriors can, however, draw confidence from the fact that none of their three opponents are anywhere near the class of opposition they faced at this year’s Olympic Games. 

Their Brazilian adventure pitted them against three top 10 teams in the women’s game: Germany (second best team in FIFA’s world rankings and eventual Olympic champions), Canada (ranked 4th) and Australia (7th).

No disrespect to any of the sides going to Cameroon but it does not take a genius to realise that none of them boast a squad as strong as the opposition Zimbabwe faced in Brazil.

As a matter of fact, none of the teams Zimbabwe will face in Yaoundé have been in awe-inspiring form of late. That includes our neighbours Banyana Banyana who only collected a single point at the Olympics.

Understandably, hosts Cameroon are the bookies’ favourites to win the group not just because of home advantage but their ever growing pedigree on the international stage too.

They reached the final of the 2014 tournament in Namibia before losing to Nigeria’s Super Falcons. But they have struggled to rediscover their touch since making a memorable World Cup debut in 2015 in Canada where they were the only African team to progress to the knock-out stage.

With Zimbabwean football in a constant state of flux, the major issue for the Mighty Warriors now is preparation. The old sporting adage ‘you make your own luck’ by adequately preparing holds sway here. 

Over to you, Mr Chiyangwa!

Winning the tournament could prove to be a task of Herculean proportions but the Mighty Warriors also know that they were far from humiliated in Brazil. That should give them plenty of confidence as they embark on their first continental championship since 2004.

There are no certainties in tournament football, but Cameroon 2016 represents another opportunity for the Mighty Warriors to put down a marker for the future.

(Farayi Mungazi is a Zimbabwean who works for BBC Sport in London.)