Junior Flames eye COSAFA final place, to end Zambia dominance

It is not going to be easy but Malawi U-20 National Football team are optimistic that they will reach the COSAFA Youth Championship as they look to end Zambia’s dominance over the team in a semi final to be played on Friday.

The team managed to break the jinxs of not advancing into the last four for 14 years after topping the group A with 7 points from three games and plan to reach the finals for the first time in 22 years.

The Junior Flames managed to beat Zimbabwe 2-1 in their opening match before playing a 1-1 draw against Angola and sealed the top spot with a comfortable 2-0 win over Namibia in their group.

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They face Zambia which finished second in group B with 7 points as well after playing a 3-3 draw against South Africa in their opening match before beating Eswatini 3-0 and Botswana 1-0.

Head coach, Millias Pofera Jegwe, anticipates a tough game against the Copper Bullets but he remain positive to reach the final of the tournament.

“We came here for a mission so we managed to break the jinxs of not reaching the semi finals and that’s history now, we know Zambia has been dominating us but we will end the story today.” Said Jegwe.

He also said they are well prepared mentally and some players who got injuries will be replaced by others as they have good players in the squad. The team however has not focused much on penalties during their preparations as Jegwe believes it is not necessary for now.

“Yes we needed to also prepare for that [penalties] but as we did not put much attention on that because I don’t think the game will reach that stage. We will finish it after 90 minutes.” Added Jegwe.

Following an outstanding performance in their group, the team’s towering defender, Precious Manjawira and star forward, Mwisho Mhango were included in the best XI of the Group Stages of the tournament.

The winner of the match will reach into the final of the tournament where they will face the winner between South Africa and Angola as the two sides face each other at 12:00hrs before Malawi dating Zambia at 15:00hrs.