Chatama confident of knockout stage berth

Malawi Under-20 National Football Team head coach Enos Chatama has expressed confidence that the Junior Flames can reach the semi-finals of the TotalEnergies Confederation of African Football (CAF) Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations Cosafa Qualifiers.

The coach’s optimism stems from Malawi’s 3-0 victory over Botswana on Monday which revived hopes of reaching the knockout stage.

In an interview after the convincing win over the Young Zebras, Chatama said the victory was important for Malawi after their opening 2-0 defeat to Zambia, which he said put his players under pressure.

Chatama: They need to

remain focused. | Courtesy of

FAM

“We believe that these boys have now got the confidence. After the loss against Zambia,” he said.

Chatama said he is now looking forward to this afternoon’s decisive Group C encounter, with Malawi needing another positive result to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

He said: “We believe they will not be under any pressure against Comoros. They will create more chances and utilise them. They need to be composed.

“We believe in the next game they will look forward to fighting up to the end, creating chance after chance and converting them because we need to have a better goal difference.”

Football analyst George Chiusiwa also praised the Junior Flames for their response against Botswana.

He said: “They showed real character in this battle to get a result that keeps Malawi still hoping for a semi-final berth while banking on some probabilities and permutations at the tournament, with their final group phase fight against Comoros as another defining hurdle. But we remain optimistic for the positive results.”

Malawi’s hopes, however, will also depend on the permutations involving the other groups.

Zambia became the first team to book their place in the semi-finals on Monday after cruising to a 3-0 victory over Comoros to make it two wins from two in Group C.

Defending champions South Africa also took control of Group B with a 2-0 victory over Angola. Eswatini, meanwhile, secured a dramatic 3-2 victory over Lesotho.

The three group winners and the best runner-up will advance to the semi-finals, with the two finalists qualifying for the next year’s CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations Ghana.

After two rounds of group matches, all three teams currently occupying second place in their respective groups have three points.

Angola currently lead the second-placed teams table on a goal difference of two, followed by Mozambique on a goal difference of two, while Malawi are third with a goal difference of one.

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