Malawi beach soccer national team have qualified for their second consecutive Africa Cup of Nations finals after beating Burundi 15-14 on aggregate.
The two teams played out a 8 all draw in the second leg at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach in Salima on Saturday afternoon, five days after Malawi claimed a vital 7-6 in the first leg away victory in Bujumbura, Burundi on Monday.
A brace each for Frank Mwenelupembe, Sandram Ussi and Isaac Kajamu and a goal each for Obilen Nkhumbula and Thom Kamanga punched Malawi a ticket to the finals to be hosted by Egypt in October.
In a post-match interview, Kajamu said they were excited to qualify for the finals.
He said: “We knew that the return leg would be tough, but we planned well for them.
“It was so intense as we tied at 8-8 for a couple of minutes and had they scored they would have carried the day. But we did not give up hope but fought on to the last whistle,” he said
Relief was the prevalent emotion after the final whistle on the part of coach Willy Kumilambe.
He admitted that the team has plenty of homework before the Afcon finals in Egypt later this year.
’’We have made it to the Afcon finals and I am happy with the result but not our performance . We conceded cheap goals but I know the problems which will be rectified before the Afcon finals,’’ said Kumilambe
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) president Fleetwood Haiya praised the players for a hard fought victory.
’’We are very happy that we have done a good job. As you are aware for the national teams as FAM, we are just managers so let me congratulate President Dr Lazarus Chakwera for making beach soccer to qualify for the Afcon finals. Today (Saturday) is a day for celebration and we are going to motivate the boys.
’’We are going to government to deliver a message that we have qualified for the Afcon finals and we believe the qualification will motivate government to support us,’’ said Haiya.
During the 2022 qualifiers, the team edged Tanzania in the qualifiers on away goal rule after 8-8 on aggregate. Malawi beat Tanzania 3-2 in Salima before losing 6-5 in the second leg.
At the AFCON finals, Malawi finished sixth after a heart-breaking loss to Uganda on post-match penalties in the 5th and 6th place play-off match. In the group stage, Malawi lost 4-2 to Mozambique in the AFCON opener before a 7-3 defeat to Morocco.
