Malawi national football team, the Flames face a mammoth test Wednesday when they play Tanzania\u2019s Taifa Stars in a Fifa World Cup preliminary round qualifier amid scorching heat at 60,000-seater National Stadium.<\/p>\n
It would be a tough test for the Flames, who would be looking to claim a win in Dar es Salaam before a second-leg tie at home, Kamuzu Stadium, this Sunday. The Flames are yet to win a match against Taifa Stars in last five games played in Tanzania.<\/p>\n
The two teams are separated by 35 steps on the latest Fifa Coca-Cola world ranking with Flames on 101, whereas Taifa Stars are on 136. However, in football, rankings can sometimes not matter.<\/p>\n
Taifa Stars, who recently impressively held Nigeria to a goal-less draw at the same venue, are no pushovers, especially at home.<\/p>\n
This could be a serious warning for the Flames and they need to exercise caution when facing TP Mazembe duo Mbwana Samatta and Thomas Ulimwengu, who are Taifa Stars top strikers.<\/p>\n
With Robert Ng\u2019ambi out due to injury, Flames coach Ernest Mtawali has almost the same squad-minus, Chiukepo Msowoya and Richard Chipuwa that was held by Swaziland in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier recently.<\/p>\n
Seasoned goalkeeper, Simplex Nthala, is expected to be between the sticks after Chipuwa was dropped.<\/p>\n
Mtawali would be hoping to chalk his first competitive win in charge of the Flames after fluffing a good opportunity against Swaziland last month.<\/p>\n
Despite hot weather conditions in Tanzania, Mtawali was upbeat ahead of today\u2019s clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have adapted well to the hot conditions here in Tanzania and the players are ready to die for the nation. We anticipate a tough encounter, but we need to defend well throughout the match because we have been conceding silly goals towards the end of the game,\u201d Mtawali said.<\/p>\n
However, Mtawali said the absence of Ng\u2019ambi is a blow but the team will cope.<\/p>\n
In a separate interview, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) executive member, Paul Mzungu, who is also leader of delegation, was confident that Flames would come out victors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is too hot but it normally cools down during the afternoon which is the time for the game but the team is ready,\u201d Mzungu said.<\/p>\n
Midfield workhorse Micium Mhone, Gerald Phiri Jnr, John Banda, captain Limbikani Mzava and ever improving Yamikani Fodya are potential match winners for the Flames.<\/p>\n
Tanzania coach Charles Mkwasa would relying on Samatta, Ulimwengu and Free State Stars attacker, Mrisho Ngassa.<\/p>\n
The winner of the two-legged tie meet Africa\u2019s football powerhouse, Algeria in the next round of the continental qualifiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi national football team, the Flames face a mammoth test Wednesday when they play Tanzania\u2019s Taifa Stars in a Fifa World Cup preliminary round qualifier amid scorching heat at 60,000-seater National Stadium. It would be a tough test for the Flames, who would be looking to claim a win in Dar es Salaam before a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9871","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\/9871","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=9871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9877,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9871\/revisions\/9877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}