HARARE - Zimbabwe have been draw to face Malawi in the quarterfinals of the Castle Cosafa Cup in July according to the draw held in Zambia on Friday night.

The Warriors, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique and Angola were given a bye from the group stages.

At the draw held in the Zambian capital, the un-seeded teams were placed into two groups with the matches set to be played between July 6 and 11.

Group A is made up of Tanzania, Mauritius, Namibia and Seychelles while Group B comprises of Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Kenya and neighbours Tanzania have been invited to be the guest teams from the East Africa region.      

Speaking at the draw on Friday, Cosafa president Suketu Patel was delighted by the return of the regional tournament after a three year absence saying he was optimistic it will be a great tourney.

Suketu acknowledged that the period between 2010 to 2012 had been quiet but further added that despite the lull women and youth football was still vibrant.

"We are delighted with the entrants for the return of the Cosafa cup to be hosted by Zambia 2013 in July. The return of our showpiece regional competition is long overdue and we are excited at the prospects of once again seeing our best players from the Southern African region and our two guests from East Africa compete for the title," Suketu said.

"I also want to thank the sponsors Castle Lager for this great partnership this shows renewed confidence in us and this is a good sign that better things are to come as we continue looking for other partners," he added. - Sports Writer