Be Forward Wanderers completed Carlsberg Cup quarterfinal set following a convincing 4-1 win over Dwangwa United in a Round of 16 match played at Kamuzu Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
Forgotten Flames forward Zicco Mkanda scored an early goal and the first half ended with the Nomads leading 1-0.
Come second half, both sides looked aggressive in their frontlines but it seemed the Lali Lubani side wanted the goals most as Peter Wadabwa extended the lead with a powerful shot.
Wanderers technical panel then made two changes as they took off Mkanda and Isaac Kaliati replacing them with Francisco Madinga and Misheck Botomani.
Minutes into the second half, Precious Sambani headed in for the Nomads to be three up and six minutes later the Nkhotakota based side pulled one back through Muhammad Biason’s strike.
Sambani came in again in added time to bag a brace as the Nomads set up a date with fellow Blantyre giants Azam Tigers in a match scheduled for Sunday.
Wanderers coach Bob Mpinganjira disclosed in an interview that their aim was to get an early goal so as to frustrate Dwangwa who seemed easy on paper but tough on the pitch.
“It was a good game and I am very happy that the boys worked very hard today. We knew that Dwangwa is a good side and I told my boys to not underrate them and that happened as we got an early goal.
“At halftime I talked to the boys that we should get more goals and thanks we got them and now we will be preparing for the next game which is against Tigers who are tough opponents as you also know,” Mpinganjira told the press after the match.
On his part, assistant coach for Dwangwa, Ladwell Mbetewa blamed the newly installed artificial turf for the defeat saying it took time for his boys to cope up with it.
“I believe that the artificial turf being new wasn’t friendly to these boys as they are accustomed to the natural grass pitch so it took time to get used to it as you saw we conceded that early goal.
“However I am happy with the performance of the boys today despite that we came here late as we had some many break downs on our way here,” said Mbetewa.
