{"id":78671,"date":"2019-06-03T03:41:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T01:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=78671"},"modified":"2019-06-03T03:41:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T01:41:58","slug":"flames-mess-out-of-cosafa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/06\/03\/flames-mess-out-of-cosafa\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames mess out of Cosafa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mphatso Malidadi: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Malawi national football team missed a perfect opportunity to qualify for the semi-finals of the Cosafa Cup<\/a> after losing 4-2 to Zambia on post-match penalties in a quarter-final match played at Princess Magogo Stadium in Durban, South Africa, Sunday.<\/p>\n

After taking a comfortable 2-0 lead deep into the second half, Malawi allowed Zambia to come from behind and force a 2-2 draw at full time.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Ernest Kakhobwe gifted Zambia an equaliser in the 89th minute when left-back Precious Sambani carelessly sent a back pass to him.<\/p>\n

The Flames will now meet Comoros in the Cosafa Plate semifinals Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In-form Flames hitman, Gabadinho Mhango, put Malawi in the lead after connecting home a Gerald Phiri Jnr free-kick three minutes into the game.<\/p>\n

Phiri curled in a free-kick which John Banda flicked to set up Gabadinho for his third goal of the competition in four games.<\/p>\n

Malawi were resolute and disciplined in defence as they restricted Chipolopolo\u2019s movements throughout the first half.<\/p>\n

The Flames extended the lead in the second half after Phiri converted a spot kick in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n

But Zambia pulled one back in the 58th minute after Austin Muwowo took advantage of Malawi\u2019s defensive lapses to release a powerful grass cutter beyond Kakhobwe.<\/p>\n

From this moment, both teams were a bit nervous as Malawi chased another goal to cushion the lead whereas Zambia were also cautious when going forward in their search of an equaliser.<\/p>\n

Flames Coach, Meke Mwase, opted for attacking substitutions when he substituted Micium Mhone and Richard Mbulu for Chawanangwa Kaonga and Peter Banda, respectively.<\/p>\n

Mwase was also forced to introduce Dennis Chembezi for injured Charles Petro.<\/p>\n

Zambia could not believe their luck after Sambani made a back pass to under pressure Kakhobwe, who panicked and failed to clear a seemingly harmless ball.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Chabula took full advantage to equalise with a minute to go and send the game into penalties.<\/p>\n

During penalty shootouts, Phiri and Stanley Sanudi converted but Chawanangwa Kaonga blazed his over the crossbar whereas Sambani hit the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Heartbroken, Phiri, who was named Man-of-the-Match, said it was a tough and cruel result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coach did not put any pressure on us and we played our game. But one mistake cost us the game and we have learnt the hard way,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mwase said he was at pains with the loss and blamed it on lack of maturity.<\/p>\n

Zambia Coach , Aggrey Chiyangi, said they deserved to win after working hard to come back into the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mphatso Malidadi: Malawi national football team missed a perfect opportunity to qualify for the semi-finals of the Cosafa Cup after losing 4-2 to Zambia on post-match penalties in a quarter-final match played at Princess Magogo Stadium in Durban, South Africa, Sunday. After taking a comfortable 2-0 lead deep into the second half, Malawi allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78671","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\/78671","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=78671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78676,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78671\/revisions\/78676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}