Chelsea draw at 1-1 Arsenal

Arsenal Ladies hosted Chelsea Women on Sunday and were hoping to reduce the gap between them and the leaders, Chelsea. Their intentions, however, did not translate to their performance, at least not early in the match as they conceded to a Fran Kirby goal. Kirby finished off the opener from a Ramona Bachmann’s pass. This is all thanks to a poor clearance from by the Arsenal goalkeeper, Sari van Veenendaal, who gifted the ball to the Swedish striker. This gave a wakeup call to the Arsenal team who started attacking more and saw efforts by Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema saved by the Chelsea goalkeeper. Later on, Lindahl could barely do anything when Mead started running from the halfway line and finished past the goalkeeper with a Messi-like goal. That was not the end of it. The match saw Chelsea having a late attempt to claim victory ahead of Arsenal through substitute Cuthbert from 15 yards out but she was denied by Van Veenendaal. The result gave the chance to Manchester City Women to move level on points with Chelsea but they crumbled to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of mid-table Reading against all odds. Chelsea lead the league with 29 points, Manchester City Women are in second with 26 points and Arsenal Ladies are in 4th with 21 points but are still yet to play their 2 games in hand. Will the Arsenal Ladies manage to catch up with Chelsea who are undefeated in the league so far?

Nigeria: Asisat Oshoala not in Nigeria’s squad for France friendly

The three-time women’s African footballer of the year, Asisat Oshoala has been left out of the Super Falcons’ squad to face France in Le Mans on 6 April. A Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) official highlighted that her Chinese club Dalian Quanjian refused to release her on the grounds that she had once missed pre-season training after returning late from international duty. Oshoala was originally in the 23 women’s squad together with other five high profile internationals who have also been omitted. The NFF official also added that some players had passport and visa issues hence the omission. The former Arsenal and Liverpool striker refused to acknowledge any alleged acts of indiscipline and insisted that she is missing the friendly to sort out her work permit.

Asisat Oshoala helped Nigeria to their record eighth Women’s African Nations title in Cameroon 2016. The friendly is part of Nigeria’s preparations to ace the qualifiers for the 2018 African Women Cup of Nations to be held in Ghana this November. Their performance in the tournament will also determine if they will secure a spot at the 2019 Women’s FIFA World Cup in France. The Super Falcons have appeared in the world cup since 1991 but have failed to reach the last four on any occasion.

Man City Women win in 8 goal thriller

The long-awaited second leg to the clash between Manchester City Women and Linkoping finally came and did not disappoint in the number of goals that were scored between the two teams. 8 goals were scored on the night with Manchester City scoring 5 but also conceding three. Jane Ross scored a goal before Georgia Stanway’s brace. Jen Beattie scored the 4th which gave the away side a comfortable 4-0 advantage before the break. They saw a different Linkoping team right after the break as Marija Basunic was on target twice a few minutes after kickoff. Izzy Christiansen eventually scored the 5th and eased the pressure off the English team. This meant that Tove Almqvist's late third barely had any impact on the flow of the game. The English side is through to the semifinals of the Champions League with a 7-3 aggregate score. Who says Women’s football is not a thrill?

Zimbabwe: Senior women’s team coach appeals for support

Head coach, Sithethelelwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda has made a familiar cry surrounding the exploits of the Mighty Warriors camp. Kwinji 15 who is a former Zimbabwean international has called upon the corporate world and any willing hearts to lend a hand as they prepare to tackle Namibia on April 5 for a place in the Women’s African Cup of Nations scheduled for November 2018 in Ghana. In particular, the Mighty Warriors mentor mentioned the lack of competitive matches in the form of international friendlies or a challenge-free domestic league as the main pain points before revealing that all the issues stem out of underinvestment into the women’s game.

"I think the whole thing is about sponsorship. My plea really is if there are any companies out there who can put their money in women football, it can go a long way in helping our girls. So that at least our national league is kept going." - Sithethelelwe Sibanda

Mighty Warriors enjoyed a fruitful 2016 that saw them qualify for the Rio Olympic games as well as the African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) finals in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Zimbabwe: Mighty Warriors put their game face on

The Southern African country’s first team has commenced preparations ahead of the Africa Women Cup of Nations in the capital, Harare. Team manager, Charity Munemo is delighted with players’ swift turn up for training. Only a handful players are still expected to join the Mighty Warriors camp, including star striker, Rutendo “Madzimai” Makore who is plying her trade at Spanish side, Sporting de Huelva.

"So far we have 27 players in camp and I can say the turnout was very good. It's quite impressive because sometimes we start camp without most of the players but this time around we had most of them on the first day.” - Charity Munemo

Coach, Sithethelelwe Sibanda otherwise known as “Kwinji15” for her heroics on the pitch has maintained the squad that won silver at last September’s COSAFA championships.

The Mighty warriors will have to overcome a tricky Namibia on April 5 and 8 in their first-round encounter to face either Tanzania or Zambia.