The Flames have a chance to redeem themselves as they date Namibia’s Brave Warriors in their second fixture at the 2025 HollywoodBets Cosafa Cup this afternoon at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
A loss to Lesotho in the opening match means the Likuena top Group B with three points.
The Flames, who are the only side without a point in the group, are at the bottom of the table while Angola and Namibia, who settled for a 1-1 draw, have a point each.
With just group winners qualifying for the semi-finals, the Flames have no luxury of even thinking of a draw.
A lacklustre performance in the opening match in which the Flames failed to shoot on target despite massive ball possession, left the Flames technical panel with a huge assignment.
Flames assistant coach Peter Mponda in an interview said they have worked on the shortfalls noticed in the match against Lesotho.
He said: “We know where we failed. We had our video session where we analysed the game. We saw that our entrance into the box was minimal. We were not having bodies in the box.
“In terms of our possession, we are saying we dominated, but in football, domination of possession doesn’t win you games.
“We need to get into the box and score goals. I am sure that with the video session and the training today, we finalised our preparations properly.”
The two sides last met in March at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers and Brave Warriors stunned the Flames 1-0 in a match Malawi also dominated.
But Mponda while admitting that it will be a tough one, said this time there will be no excuses.
He said: “They have a good team. But we don’t have to start giving excuses. We know what we are doing. We don’t have to start giving excuses.
On his part, Brave Warriors coach Collin Benjamin said they need to collect full points at all cost
He said: With Lesotho having three points, its normal that we have to go flat out and collect three points against Malawi and see where we will end up when all things are done.”
The game will be the 17th between the two sides.
The stats are in favour of Namibia who have won eight of the matches while Malawi have won four. The other four ended in stalemates.
