{"id":65841,"date":"2018-05-26T07:15:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T05:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=65841"},"modified":"2018-05-26T07:15:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T05:15:45","slug":"blue-eagles-in-mafco-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/05\/26\/blue-eagles-in-mafco-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Eagles in Mafco trap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Eagles captain Micium Mhone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salima-based soldiers, Mafco have probably set a trap, hoping to catch Blue Eagles in the Airtel Top 8 quarter-final return leg at Chitowe Stadium Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Eagles still head into the match with a slender 1-0 lead from the first-leg.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by the return of six players who missed the first-leg due to suspension, the soldiers hope to overturn the tables against the policemen.<\/p>\n

The last four seasons have produced contrasting statistics between the two sides.<\/p>\n

Head-to-head in the last six games, Mafco have beaten Eagles twice in 2015 and 2016 whereas the cops have won four games, with one ending goalless.<\/p>\n

At this stage, Mafco Coach, Mike Kumanga, believes that Eagles are not flying high and can easily be trapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just down but not yet out. We have faith in the players that they will do everything possible to win the match,\u201d said Kumanga, whose side has only won once (2-1 against Nchalo United) in five TNM Super League games this season.<\/p>\n

Eagles Coach, Deklerk Msakakuona, on Thursday said his charges were treading carefully ahead of the return leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tricky match. We should be prepared to face a tough side. But the players are in a good mood and we hope to go through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eagles should expect to face a completely changed Mafco comprising the returning Kalisto Kalinda, Martin Masoatheka, Dingiswayo Banda, Zikhole Ngulube and Emmanuel Chipeta who were suspended due to a fracas in a league match against Nyasa Big Bullets last year.<\/p>\n

Last year, Eagles exited the competition at the same stage when they lost 6 -2 on aggregate to Kamuzu Barracks whereas Mafco lost to Moyale Barracks 4-2 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Mafco have several weapons in Kalinda, Masoatheka, Chipeta and Maurice Chiumia whereas Eagles have Micium Mhone, Gilbert Chirwa, Gregory Nachipo and John Malidadi junior.<\/p>\n

The overall winner between Mafco and Eagles will join Be Forward Wanderers and Bullets in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Wanderers progressed to the semi-finals after a 2-0 aggregate victory over Kamuzu Barracks whereas Bullets dumped out Moyale Barracks with a 1-0 win.<\/p>\n

Silver Strikers and Civil Sporting Club face-off in the last quarter-final match at Bingu National Stadium Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salima-based soldiers, Mafco have probably set a trap, hoping to catch Blue Eagles in the Airtel Top 8 quarter-final return leg at Chitowe Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Eagles still head into the match with a slender 1-0 lead from the first-leg. Buoyed by the return of six players who missed the first-leg due to suspension, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65841","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\/65841","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=65841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65865,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65841\/revisions\/65865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}