Central “four-one” aim to South

FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Women managed to concede only three goals in the entire 2023 Season in South but Lioness beat the tally. Central Region Women’s Football Champions, MDF Lioness, has booked their place in the semi finals of the Goshen National Women’s Football Championship after thumping FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Women 4-1 at the Bingu National Stadium on Tuesday in the Quarter finals.

Prolific Striker, Fazila Chiyembekezo fires Lioness ahead in the first half before Ruth Tambala and Laita Magombo’s brace sealed the win despite a Sharon Dzimau’s consolation goal put the game alive in the match for Lioness to roar and book a semi final spot for the first time in their history.

Lioness head coach, John Kaputa, said he was happy to reach the semi finals and described the win as a sweet revenge on Bullets Women who beat them last year in the similar tournament in Blantyre.

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“Yes it a sweet revenge I think it’s what we told them to do better and not repeat what happened last year and I’m happy we have won and we look forward to prepare for our next challenge on Friday.” Said Kaputa.

Meanwhile, Maggie Chombo Sadick is the head coach for the People’s team and said small mistake cost them in the match but she is happy to see how her young girls have performed at a big stage.

“I think we had some mistakes that let us to give our opponents the goals, in other minutes we were better but our defense looked sloppy but at least it is good for some other girls who have played well on the first big tournament.” Said Chombo.

After a balanced match in the opening minutes of the match, Lioness started pressuring and Fazila Chiyembekezo fired them ahead on 36th minute to put the in front at half time.

The People’s team came strong in the second half as they had almost four attempts on goal but missed before Ruth Tambala added second with a fine strike outside the box on 66th minute but a similar goal was scored by Sharon Dzimau to put the game alive 6 minutes later.

It was a moment of mistakes for the People’s team at the back and allowed Laita Magombo to get the team’s third goal on 84th minute and completed her brace two minutes later before Bernadette Mkandawire suffering a serious injury following a foul by Chiyembekezo in the later stages of the match.

Lioness has now reached the semi finals of the tournament and will on Friday face the winner between Silver Strikers Ladies and Moyale Sisters who face off in another Quarter final match on Wednesday. Civo Women will also MK Academy in another Quarter final match on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the tournament has left with no team from the Southern Region after Kukoma Ntopwa Queens were humbled by Ascent Academy 4-0 in the early kick off match and Mighty Mukuru Wanderers Women lost 1-0 to Civo Women on Sunday.

The winner of the tournament will get K8 million with the K4 million going to runners up, the third-placed team will get K2 million, and K1.5 million will go to the fourth-placed team. The final will be played on 19th May 2024 at the same Bingu National Stadium.