The Malawi Under-17 made a brilliant start to their 2019 COSAFA Championship campaign with a 3-0 victory over South Africa in day two of the competition played at Mpira Village on Saturday afternoon.
It was a deserving victory for the Junior Flames who dominated possession but were just very unfortunate not to find the back of the net on several attempts before finding the back of the net inside the additional minutes of the first half.
The visitors started brightly in the opening minutes but failed to convert two chances they created in the opening 10 minutes.
From there, it was a one sided affair as the hosts displayed brilliant football through Chikumbutso Salima, Noel Sakala, Dave Tobias and Mike Thom.
Malawi kept on knocking for the goal but South Africa’s defence was too solid at the back to frustrate the home crowd that came out in large numbers.
Despite their resilience, the visitors were 1-0 down in the additional minutes when Sakala and Salima combined to find Thom unmarked and made no mistake to slide the ball into the net, 1-0.
In the second half, Malawi continued their dominance and just 13 minutes into the half, Dave Tobias doubled the lead following brilliant display of football from Sakala and Salima, who were tormenting South Africa’s defence like nobody’s business.
Davis completed his brace just after the half hour mark when the visitors’ defense was caught napping in the line of duty to send the whole stadium into a frenzy.
Salima almost scored when he dribbled past the visitors’ defense only to be denied by the upright.
In the additional minutes, Malawi’s Andrew Lameck was given marching orders following a dangerous tackle on Neo Dikgale.
In another match, Zambia thumped Eswatini 6-0 to send a statement of intent to all rivals to suggest that they are in for the title in what was another brilliant football from the Young Chipolopo boys.
Moses Mulenga, Rickson Ng’ambi, Miguel Chirwa, Chipyoka Songa, Julius Kumwenda and Peter Chikola were all on the score sheet to send Zambia top of the group.
