This time around there was no late miracle to save the situation. A combination of wayward shooting and desperation connived to dump Malawi out of 2016 Cosafa Castle Cup after losing 1-0 to Lesotho last night.<\/p>\n
After this Group B game, the Crocodiles of Lesotho proceed to meet South Africa in the quarterfinal tomorrow, whereas the Flames are on an early flight back home after succumbing to an 87th minute Jane Thaba-Ntso\u2019s diving header.<\/p>\n
Yet all seemed fine for Malawi. For a third straight game, under-fire coach Ernest Mtawali showed his loyalty to his starting XI, with Gabadinho Mhango and captain Chiukepo Msowoya leading the front-line.<\/p>\n
Malawi started brightly with Isaac Kaliati winning a free-kick after being fouled in the first minute. From the kickt, Gerald Phiri Jnr forced Lesotho goalkeeper Daniel Jousse to spill the ball for a corner-kick.<\/p>\n
Phiri again forced the keeper to make a punch before shooting again wide in another attack. Despite their dominance, Msowoya and Mhango did not receive good service upfront.<\/p>\n
Lesotho were content sitting deep knowing a draw would be enough for them to join Swaziland in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
In the end they got more than what they bargained for.<\/p>\n
Lesotho played long balls while relying on their speed and dribbling to catch Malawi on the break. In one of such moves, Thaba-Ntso fired a long-range missile which Charles Swini stopped.<\/p>\n
Thereafter, Francis Mlimbika\u2019s cross from the left was nearly spilled into his own net by a Lesotho defender.<\/p>\n
In response, Tsepo Seturumane breached the Flames\u2019 high defensive line before unleashing a shot which Swini spilled before recollected it.<\/p>\n
After being quiet, Mhango turned and curled his shot over the bar after neat exchanges between Kaliati and Phiri on the edge of the 18-yard box. Lesotho crowded their box.<\/p>\n
In response, Mtawali pulled out captain Msowoya for Muhammad Sulumba with four minutes to full-time. Msowoya looked visibly very surprised with his withdrawal.<\/p>\n
Lesotho counter-attacked again with Swini keeping the Flames in the game by diving to punch out a Thaba-Ntso\u2019s shot that was curling towards the far post. That was the last highlight of the first half that ended 0-0.<\/p>\n
The Flames resumed the second phase in similar attacking fashion. Sensing trouble, Lesotho introduced two defensive players, including Thumelo Khutlang.<\/p>\n
In reaction, Mtawali pulled out Kaliati for John Banda to have his first run of the tournament, but the Flames were frustrated by Lesotho\u2019s delaying tactics and defending in numbers.<\/p>\n
Sulumba, Mhango and Joseph Kamwendo made speculative long-range attempts, but they were hardly on target.<\/p>\n
With time ticking and desperation creeping into the Malawi bench, Mtawali introduced Peter Wadabwa for Phiri to make it three attackers. Lesotho introduced another defender Motlomelo Mkwanazi to close shop.<\/p>\n
The Crocodiles f inally punished Malawi on the counter-attack Thaba-Ntso met a diagonal ball from the right to powerfully dive-headed the ball into the net after outjumping Stanley Sanudi at the far post.<\/p>\n
In the end, Lesotho did enough to win the game. Mtawali was the first to agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t start well in the first half we were losing the balls. Look, we didn\u2019t show any aggression and in the end, I don\u2019t think we deserved to win the game,\u201d Mtawali said in a post-match interview.<\/p>\n
Malawi line-up: Swini, Harry Nyirenda, Sanudi, Gabeya, Francis Mlimbika, Kamwendo, Phiri Jnr, Rafiq Namwela, Kaliyati, Msowoya, Mhango.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This time around there was no late miracle to save the situation. A combination of wayward shooting and desperation connived to dump Malawi out of 2016 Cosafa Castle Cup after losing 1-0 to Lesotho last night. After this Group B game, the Crocodiles of Lesotho proceed to meet South Africa in the quarterfinal tomorrow, whereas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26377,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372\/revisions\/26377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}