Ronny Van Geneugden’s men have to do whatever it takes to beat Botswana if they are to keep their Cosafa Cup quarterfinal hopes alive.
Having lost their opening Group B match to Mauritius on Monday, the Malawi national football team must beat the Zebras.
According to media reports, in today’s match against the group B leaders the Belgian tactician will use the same starting eleven that lost to Mauritius.
Anything other than a win will see the Flames exiting the tournament in the early stages for the third consecutive time.
On Monday, RVG’s troops enjoyed a fair share of possession but their style of passing made things difficult for the Flames as they failed to unlock the Mauritius defense.
Malawi created lots of goalscoring opportunities but scored none as Chiukepo Msowoya, Robin Ngalande and Richard Mbulu all failed to score in unbelievable circumstances.
However, Malawi’s chances of making it into the top eight of the competition will depend on their victory over Botswana before their final group B match against Angola on Friday.
Some football pundits have advised RVG to start with Msowoya who, despite missing the closest chance, had more impact than Gastin Simkonda who was just running aimlessly in the entire 70 minutes.
Former Flames forward Esau Kanyenda said Msowoya could be an ideal option over Simkonda in today’s match.
“You saw how Chiukepo changed the game when he came on as a substitute in the second half. I would prefer him over Simkonda because he kept Mauritius defenders at bay and if he can start today against Botswana, we can score goals,” he said.
Former Malawi legend Lawrence Waya faulted Flames midfield saying it was too flat to feed the strikers who were just running aimlessly in search for balls.
“Our midfield made it very difficult for the strikers to have any impact. Simkonda and Mbulu were just running aimlessly in search for balls because our center was too flat. If we can fix our midfield, then we can see our strikers scoring goals,” he said.
The game kicks off at 19:30pm.
Last year, Malawi exited the competition without scoring even an offside goal.
flames flames flames!