Painful exit

Malawi Under-20 national football team are out of the Cosafa Under-20 Championship after failing to clinch the best runners up spot at the tournament in eSwatini.

The Junior Flames yesterday managed to beat Namibia 5-2 at Somhlolo Stadium, but the victory was not enough to take them through.

Three teams in Group C, namely South Africa, Malawi and Comoros were tied at six points each. They therefore, had to be separated based on goal difference between them.

South Africa, having scored nine and conceded four, had +5, Malawi who scored seven and let in four had +3.

Comoros scored three and conceded four with -1 goal difference.

Following South Africa’s qualification to the semis as group winners, Malawi’s last option was to make it as best runners-up.

However, the Junior Flames also failed to upstage Angola who beat Seychelles 8-1 in their last match.

Both Angola and Malawi finished with six points apiece, but the junior Parancas Negras had a better goal difference of 11 having scored 13 and conceded just two.

This means defending champions Mozambique, who won Group B, will take on South Africa in tomorrow’s first semi-final, with Group A winners Zambia to tackle the Angolans in the second fixture.

The winners of those ties will qualify for the TotalEnergies Under-20 Afcon in Egypt early next year, which in turn acts as the qualifier for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Indonesia later in 2023

The exit is painful for the junior Flames who could have made it to the semis if they had kept a clean sheet in the match against Namibia monitored on Cosafa Television yesterday.

Knowing that goals would make or break their hopes, Malawi were on fire with Chikumbutso Salima scoring a brace in the 11th and 40th minute, Chifundo Mphasi finding the net in the 49th, Chrispine Mapemba on target in the 53rd and Emmanuel Saviel increasing the tally in the 82nd minute.

Namibia scored through Raymonzo Stern in the 62nd minute and Rewaldo Prins in the 65th minute.

Malawi Under-20 national coach Patrick Mabedi said they had learnt a lesson from the  tournament.

He said: “We tried our best. The team played well. We scored so many goals.

“Unfortunately, we went to sleep and conceded those two goals that hurt us to day.”

Mabedi pleaded with Football Association of Malawi to maintain the team.