The Malawi National football team chances of securing a spot at next year’s FIFA World Cup were dealt blow after they suffered a third defeat of the campaign following a 1-0 loss to Namibia on Thursday evening.

A win could have moved the Kalisto Pasuwa side to second position in group H within four points of the leaders Tunisia but the defeat leaves them fourth and seven points behind the North Africans.

Prins Menelik Tjiueza’s 40th minute striker was the difference, while Malawi’s failed to utilize their chances in the latter stages of the match.

“A game of chances, these are international matches where if you do one mistake, you are punished” said Kalisto Pasuwa after the match.

“We were giving them too much respect, hence keeping possession in most of the areas. Defensively we had numbers but again we ended up conceding when we had numbers at the back and we didn’t do much in terms of our attack but in the second half the boys increased intensity”

“Its unfortunate maybe we had our chances and we could have got one to two [goals] but that’s how football is all about”.

The first half was was a particularly balanced affair for the most part, but the visitors went ahead on 40th minute.

The Brave Warriors broke well as Sergio Damaseb fed Peter Shalulile in the box whose back pass found unmarked Tjiueza to give his side the lead.

Malawi recorded plenty of attempts in the second half but did little to actually test Edward Moave, who only had to make two late saves over the course of the match to deny Mbulu and Chawangwa Kaonga scoring.

Despite the gap between Flames and group leaders, Pasuwa remains optimistic of qualifying to the FIFA World Cup.

“We can’t say everything is gone” said Pasuwa when commenting on Flames chances to qualify.

The Flames will fly to Tunisia on Friday in their next assignment to face the Carthage Eagles on Monday