Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
Zimbabwe……………………………..0
Malawi………………………………(2)7
(Malawi win 9-0 on aggregate)
WHAT a massacre!
The Mighty Warriors are out of the race for a place at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games after this embarrassing defeat at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.
Under the tutelage of new coach, Stella Gotal, froze on home soil and crashed to their WORST defeat in history.
Granted, the Chawinga sisters, Temwa and Tabitha who bagged four goals between themselves, with the former getting a hattrick, are of world-class standard.
But, that doesn’t mean they should come here and thrash us 0-7.
It was a bit perplexing to see Gotal going ultra-defence in her approach, with five defenders, who were often joined by Daisy Kaitano, to make them six for most of the game.
That sort of invited the Malawians to ask the most questions and when Temwa broke the ice, after only 10 minutes, it was hardly surprising.
For a team that gave a solid show in the reverse tie in Lilongwe last Friday and came back home with a realistic fighting chance, this was just unacceptable.
Temwa once again knocked and got a breakthrough 20 minutes later to take the game to the break with the Scorchers in firm control.
Tabitha scored the third for Malawi and her sister sealed her hat-trick soon after.
“It’s a building phase,” said Gotal.
“It’s a disappointing result but we should take with us some positives we picked.
“We had a good first half creating several chances, eight or nine unlike what we did in the first game in Malawi.
“They have a good team if you look at it. They have world-class players who play in the best leagues in this world.
“It’s unfortunate we lost by such a margin but it all comes down to the issue of mistakes that we made on our part. Congratulations to Malawi.”
Malawi coach Lovemore Fazili said although his team won 7-0, it wasn’t an easy game.
“The good thing is that we managed to play well and get an early goal.
“That was the difference otherwise the game was never going to be easy.”
