Flames coach Kallisto Pasuwa says the battle for the delayed 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan) is far from over despite Saturday’s 1-0 win over South Africa at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe in the first leg of the final qualification round.
Zelliat Nkhoma scored the lone goal in the 88th minute to give the Flames an advantage ahead of the second leg this Sunday at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria.
But the Zimbabwean tactician sent out a word of caution, saying his charges are not yet in the comfort zone.
He said: “This can be the first half and there is another 45 minutes.
“But it is a motivation carrying a 1-0 lead. We also need to go there [in South Africa] and do the same.”
The Flames mentor, who was visibly excited during a post-match press conference, said his worry is that the Flames continue to show their opponents too much respect.
“The problem I saw is that we are respecting opposing teams too much… We need to have confidence and keep possession,” said Pasuwa.
On the other hand, Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki admitted that they have a tall order to turn the tables.
He said: “We have to go back home and see how best we can reverse the result.
“We are in a tight situation because even a 0-0 draw would not have been good for us as we needed an away goal badly.
“For now, we are disappointed to have lost. They [Malawi] have made life very difficult for us.”
Ntseki said they expect the Flames to defend in the return leg.
He said: “We are expecting a very resolute team defensively because they have got one leg in the finals.
“So, we’ll have to come up with solutions on how we can break through and get goals.”
Ntseki hailed the Flames’ approach to the game, saying: “They had the belief, resilience and kept on pushing. So, it was more of a mental game than tactical on the part of Malawi.
“They had tactical understanding and cohesion because they play together regularly in the national team, [in contrast], none of our players feature regularly for their teams.
“We did very well in terms of keeping them at bay until we failed to defend the corner which led to the goal.”
Head-to-head, this is only the second time that the Flames have beaten South Africa in 16 matches. Prior to Saturday’s game, Malawi’s only victory was in 2001 in a Cosafa Cup match.
