Nigerian striker Amos Bello Wednesday authored probably the worst miss of 2016 Presidential Cup, but what matters is that Be Forward Wanderers defeated MTV Max Bullets 2-1 to sail through to the semifinals.<\/p>\n
In front of a few fans on a cold afternoon at Kamuzu Stadium, winger Isaac Kaliyati and striker Peter Wadabwa scored in the 18th and 76th minutes, respectively, to ensure that Wanderers date Moyale Barracks in the semifinals.<\/p>\n
The rookies had earlier cancelled out the Nomads\u2019 lead through Mayeso Mphanje\u2019s wonder 32nd minute thunderous direct free-kick that nestled at the top corner of goalkeeper Peter Munthali\u2019s net.<\/p>\n
But the result could have easily been 3-1 had substitute Bello not kicked the air and his own left leg instead of simply softly sliding Wadabwa\u2019s square ball across the goal-mouth.<\/p>\n
By the time the towering Bello fluffed his scoring chance, he had, nonetheless, done enough to justify his introduction in place of Luka Milanzi.<\/p>\n
Minutes after stepping onto the pitch, Bello\u2019s flick earned the Nomads a penalty after a handball by Max Bullets\u2019 player.<\/p>\n
From the spot, Wadabwa coolly dispatched the ball past goalkeeper Alex Makina to bring relief to Wanderers coach Eddingtone Ng\u2019onamo.<\/p>\n
Overall, the game was a big yawn without neither rhythm nor class as both teams failed to string passes. It was difficult imagining that the pitch was graced by national team players.<\/p>\n
It took 12 minutes before Max Bullets\u2019 winger Frank Kadam\u2019manja, who gave Stanley Sanudi tough time on the right side of the defence, registered a first shot on target.<\/p>\n
Then on the other end, what looked like a routine cut-back from the left, found Kaliyati free to squeeze in the opener at the near post.<\/p>\n
Some 14 minutes later, the hard-running Max Bullets earned themselves a life-line when captain Foster Namwela fouled advancing Wongani Zulu.<\/p>\n
From the spot, former Nomads striker Mphanje stepped forward to leave keeper Munthali with no chance.<\/p>\n
Ng\u2019onamo sensed trouble in midfield. He pulled out Ernest Tambe for Alfred Manyozo Jnr to tighten the midfield in an otherwise boring opening half.<\/p>\n
In the second half, Wanderers searched for an early cushion goal, but there was simply no cohesion, let alone rhythm. The players looked rusty.<\/p>\n
Max Bullets\u2019 coach Trevor Kajawa also responded by withdrawing seasoned holding midfielder, Musakayike Mlengo, for Samson Chande with Bello eventually stepping in for Milanzi.<\/p>\n
Bello made an instant impact with his aerial presence and an ability to run at defenders, only to spoil his party with that terrible miss.<\/p>\n
Ng\u2019onamo was relieved, but for Kajawa, it was back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys tried so hard but it was not to be. Anyway, we have to accept the result and move on,\u201d Kajawa said.<\/p>\n
Wanderers have joined in the semifinals Mafco, who defeated Dwangwa United 1-0. Mafco await the winner of another quarterfinal between Nyasa Big Bullets and Kabwafu in Mzuzu on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerian striker Amos Bello Wednesday authored probably the worst miss of 2016 Presidential Cup, but what matters is that Be Forward Wanderers defeated MTV Max Bullets 2-1 to sail through to the semifinals. In front of a few fans on a cold afternoon at Kamuzu Stadium, winger Isaac Kaliyati and striker Peter Wadabwa scored in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26698","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\/26698","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=26698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26703,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26698\/revisions\/26703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}