Malawi women stun Madagascar
Malawi women national football team yesterday lived up to their promise when they stunned Madagascar 2-0 at the Cosafa Women’s Championship in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to revive their hopes of making it to the next stage of the competition.
After a disappointing start in which Malawi went down 2-0 to Botswana in the opening game, coach Maggie Chombo-Sadiki promised to bounce back in the second match.
Led by captain Salome Vinkhumbo, they did it in style outperforming the Islanders in all departments in a bubbly encounter played at Wolfson Stadium.
A goal in each half from Linda Kasenda and Zainab Kapanda was all Malawi needed to be guaranteed of a victory.
This was a relief for the technical panel.
Chombo-Sadik described the game as tactically difficult.
“It was a difficult game. We were coming from losing our first game to Botswana just like Madagascar who lost to South Africa. Everyone wanted to win. We made some changes to the squad to which helped us,” she said.
Malawi faces South Africa in the final group stage match tomorrow while Madagascar plays Botswana.
The coach said she anticipates another gruelling match.
“They are the hosts and defending champions. I know they will give us problems. We just have to prepare well for them,” said Chombo-Sadik.
Malawi needs to win the match against the hosts to progress to the knockout stage either as Group A leaders or best losers.
Winners of the three groups will automatically qualify for the semi-final while the best losers will get the fourth slot.
