Chinsinsi Maonga hits double as Junior Flames put five past Zimbabwe

…Malawi into Cosafa Cup Youth Championship semifinals

A rampant Junior Flames extended their lead at the top in the ongoing Cosafa Cup Youth Championship in Mauritius with a 5-nil mauling of Zimbabwe in group A to book themselves a place in the semifinals of the competition with a game to play.

The Malawi under 17 National team meant business as they broke the deadlock just after 14 minutes through Franklin Titani following brilliant move which started in the middle of the park.

Deklerk Msakakuona’s boys were very hungry for goals as they attacked like vicious snakes from all cylinders no wonder their opponents kept on chasing their own shadows in the entire match.

With three minutes to play, the Junior Flames doubled their tally through Chinsinsi Maonga whose shot was just too much for Zimbabwe’s goalkeeper, 2-nil.

Come second half, it only took two minutes for the Junior Flames to put the match beyond Zimbabwe’s reach with another fantastic goal.

Maonga turned from a scorer to a provider when his through ball inside the penalty box found Chikondi Mbeta who mad no mistake by putting the ball into the back of the net.

The group A leaders kept on pushing for more goals but Zimbabwe’s keeper made some stunning saves to deny the Junior Flames from adding more goals.

On 62 minutes, the match was 4-nil. Maonga was on score sheet again with a fantastic goal following another brilliant move from the wings which caught their opponents’ defence napping.

Just when everybody thought the margin was enough, Patrick Mwaughulu added salt to the wound when he smashed a powerful shot past Zimbabwean goalkeeper into the back of the net to end the match 5-nil in favor of Malawi.

The result takes Junior Flames’ goal tally to seven following their opening 2-nil victory over Botswana on Saturday.

Malawi is now topping the standings with 6 points with a game to play before wrapping up the group stages and they are the favorites to finish as the group winners ahead of the host nation Mauritius who will play Botswana in their second game.

Maonga was named man of the match following his brilliant display which saw him scoring two goals and providing an assist to Mbeta for the second goal.