The country’s soccer giants, Be Forward Wanderers and Nyasa Big Bullets, are set for the first derby of 2018, as they lock horns in a friendly encounter at Bingu
National Stadium in Lilongwe this afternoon.
Wanderers are gearing up for African Football (Caf) Champions League preliminary round, away to AS Vita of the Democratic Republic of Congo next week.
On the other hand, Bullets are fine-tuning for 2018 TNM Super League, after missing out on titles for the last two editions.
The match comes at a time both sides are battling contrasting off-the-pitch incidents.
Wanderers’ players have been boycotting training to force management to settle their arrears.
For the People’s Team, the encounter comes barely days after they released seven players, including seasoned Jimmy Zakazaka and George Nyirenda.
The two giants will be looking forward to testing combinations of their new signings The game offers Nomads a platform to tie loose ends before travelling to Kinshasa.
Wanderers Coach, Yasin Osman, said he was confident that their sworn rivals will give his boys a real test ahead of the Caf game.
“It is obvious. Everybody knows Bullets is a good team.
They finished second [on the league’s standings] last season and when we look around, we feel that they are a better side to play against,” he said.
Wanderers roped in Premier Bet Wizards’ Misheck Bottomani and Dennis Chembezi, Dan Kumwenda and Peter Cholopi from Azam Tigers with Niyikiza
Aimable and Blessings Tembo joining as free agents.
And according to Osman, the new players are gelling with the rest of the squad.
Wanderers Captain, Joseph Kamwendo, has since declared war on Bullets, saying Nomads were eyeing nothing short of a win.
“It is always war when we play Bullets. We have to take the game as an opportunity to assess ourselves, while keeping in mind that playing Vita will not be easy,” he said.
Bullets Coach, Rodgers Yasin, and his assistant Elia Kananji refused to comment on the game, saying only Chief Executive Officer, Fleetwood Haiya, would be granting interviews on the team’s behalf.
The People’s Team will likely live their new boys Righteous Banda, Patrick Phiri and Precious Phiri debuts.
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