Flames struggled against Angola
The Malawi National Football Team, the Flames reached their lowest ebb when they bowed out of the 2025 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup without registering a win in three matches.
The 1-0 loss to Angola at Toyota Stadium in their final Group B fixture in Bloemfontein, South Africa Tuesday summed up a disappointing campaign for the Flames at this year’s Cosafa Cup.
It was yet another disappointing performance for the Flames as the wait for the Cosafa Cup title in 24 attempts continues.
The Flames went into the battle against Angola looking to restore pride in the regional showpiece but it went from bad to worse.
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This means the Flames have exited the tournament with two losses and one draw in three matches. They lost 1-0 in the opening match to Lesotho before a goal-less stalemate against Namibia on Sunday.
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In addition, the Flames bowed out of the competition without scoring a goal.
This is the first time for the senior team in the last three Cosafa Cup competitions.
The loss to Lesotho could be a wake-up call for the Kalisto Pasuwa led technical panel.
This is the fifth loss for the Flames in nine consecutive matches in all competitions.
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Before the two defeats at Cosafa Cup, Malawi had two lost three matches-two in the 2026 Fifa World Cup to Namibia (1- 0), Tunisia (2-0) and 2-0 to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in the 2025 Nations of African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers.
Since Pasuwa was named Flames permanent coach, the Flames registered two-back-to-back victories over Comoros (2-0. 0-2) in the Chan qualifiers before beating South Africa 1-0 in Chan.
All the three matches were played at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
But yesterday, Pasuwa and his assistant coach Peter Mponda maintained the first 11 that played against Namibia.
The Flames started the match strongly looking for an early goal but the first half ended goal-less.
In the second half, Randy Nteka scored the only goal of the match two minutes after the break.
Moments later, Flames were dealt a blow when Blessings Singini was withdrawn due to an injury. Oscar Petro replaced him whereas Olson Kanjira came on for Gaddie Chirwa.
With 19 minutes to full time, Promise Kamwendo and Chawanangwa Gumbo paved the way for Zeliati Nkhoma and Wongani Lungu respectively but the substitutions made no impact.
The Flames’ search for their first ever Cosafa Cup title continues.
