Cosafa Castle Cup preview: Flames target victory against Tanzania

The 2017 Cosafa Castle Cup kicks off this afternoon in South Africa.

The first match of the day will see Malawi playing against guest nation Tanzania at Moruleng Stadium.

Having lost 2-nil to the Taifa Stars in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the Flames have targeted a victory in order to keep their hopes of making it to the next round of the competition.

Flames coach Ronny Van Geneugden has assembled a very strong squad despite being denied the opportunity by South African clubs to use professional players.

RVG has given Peter Cholopi, Khuda Muyaba, Innocent Bokosi and Ian Chinyama their first senior national team call up.

He is likely to use Jabulani Linje upfront, with Chikoti Chirwa cementing his place in midfield.

After tomorrow’s game, the Flames will then play Mauritius in the second game before completing their Group A assignments with the final game against Angola.

The group winners will progress to the quarterfinal where they will play South Africa.

Ever since the cup’s inception, the Flames have never won it but were very close to winning it in 2002 and 2003 when they reached the finals where they eventually lost in all the two attempts.

In 2014, Malawi won the Cosafa plate section after beating South Africa on post-match penalties.