Malawi Women’s National Football Team only needs to win the next two matches to retain the HollywoodBets Cosafa Women’s Championship in South Africa.
The Scorchers won the championship for the first time ever last year and they can repeat the feat if they manage to hold their nerves until the end of the regional showpiece.
Malawi lifted the 2023 title after edging bitter rivals and neighbours Zambia 2-1 in a tense final.
This time, the two teams will temporarily forget their similarities in names and languages as they clash in a semifinal tie this afternoon at Wolfson Stadium in Gqeberha.
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The reward for the winner of the crunching encounter is a meeting with either South Africa or Mozambique, who take to the pitch later as they also battle for a place in the final.
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Malawi will be fancying its chances against a resilient Zambia, who finished top of Group C with a 7-0 hammering of Comoros and a 3-0 thumping of Angola.
The Scorchers were also impressive in Group B where they emerged the highest scoring team with 11 goals and seven points.
Malawi started with a 1-1 stalemate against Botswana but recovered to edge Madagascar 1-0.
They finished their group assignments with a 9-0 mauling of Mauritius to secure their place in the last four.
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Malawi coach Lovemore Fazili has reiterated the need for his charges to beat Zambia and go all the way to win the final as he eyes next year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) championship finals.
“All my players are ready and I am even having a headache on who to start. But I have told them about the importance of winning against Zambia. A good result in this match will lift our spirits for the final.
“But it is one game at a time. We do not need to worry much about what will happen in the final. We will only start worrying about that when we get Zambia out of our way. Our goal is to successfully defend the title and qualify for the Wafcon finals next year,” Fazili said.
Scorchers captain Sabina Thom said beating Zambia would not be an easy task.
“We beat them last year in the final and they have had good preparations ahead of this tournament. So we know it will not be an easy match. But we will not let them do what they want. We are hungry for a repeat of last year’s sweet result. We are all geared to die for the nation in this match,” Thom said.
Malawi are without last year’s star players Temwa Chawinga and Rose Kabzere who did not make it to this year’s tournament due to club commitments.
