Malawi National Football Team remains winless in the 2025 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers following a goal-less draw against Burundi at Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, last night.
The result saw the Flames earning their first point in the campaign having lost four consecutive matches.
The Flames will host Burkina Faso at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in their last Group L match on Monday.
Malawi were also looking for revenge having lost 3-2 to Burundi in the qualifiers’ opening match at BNS in September.
But all they managed was a stalemate which left them anchoring the group with just one point from five matches whereas Burundi remain third with three points from the same number of matches.
Flames interim coach Kalisto Pasuwa trusted new personnel in his first match in charge with seasoned Gabadinho Mhango, Charles Petro and Richard Mbulu making it into the starting line-up.
Yankho Singo was handed his debut while Gaddie Chirwa and Alick Lungu also started.
Captain John Banda, goalkeeper William Thole, Lanjesi Nkhoma, Dennis Chembezi and MacDonald Lameck were the only survivors from the side that played in the 1-0 loss to Senegal at home under immediate past coach Patrick Mabedi.
Malawi started the match with caution and ended up sitting too deep in the first half.
The twin partnership of Mbulu and Mhango was isolated upfront and failed to create meaningful chances.
But the Flames came close to scoring from Mhango’s free kick after Mbulu was fouled on the edge of the box with three minutes to the break but the effort went wide.
After half time, Burundi upped the tempo of the game and got the first chance with Malawi’s defence failing to clear a cross in the box but Thole came to the rescue.
Later in the second half, the Flames made a triple substitution with Singo, Mbulu and Chirwa paving way for Lloyd Aaron, Chawanangwa Kaonga and Lloyd Njaliwa.
Moments later, Lameck was lucky to remain on the pitch after the referee gave him a red card following a bookable offence which he mistakenly thought was a second one.
But the match official later rescinded his decision after realizing that it was the first.
Shortly afterwards, the Silver Strikers defender was pulled out for Gomezgani Chirwa while Nkhoma was substituted for Wisdom Mpinganjira.
Burundi almost scored a few minutes later from close range but Thole produced a wonderful double save to keep out the threat.
Mhango could have won the match for the Flames towards full time but his effort was cleared off the line.
He had another chance to score in stoppage time but his bicycle kick went wide.
Pasuwa said it was a good result.
“This is a good result for us considering that we had little time with the players. The result gives the players and everyone the confidence that we can soldier on,” Pasuwa said.
