FULL TIME
Mauritius 0-9 Malawi (Leticia Chinyamula 8′ 50′ 79′, Sabina Thom 23′ 70′ 83′, Asimenye Simwaka 27′, Catherine Kachala 85′, Maureen Kenneth 90+8′)
The Malawi National Women’s Football team are through to the Semifinals of the 2024 Cosafa Women’s Championship after thrashing Mauritius 9-0 in their last group stage match at Madibaz Stadium on Monday afternoon.
The Scorchers went into the match fully aware that they needed more than five goals to win the group as they trailed leaders Botswana on goal difference.
Botswana had five goals against Malawi’s one as the two teams were tied at 4 points.
Just like Coach Fazili had said in his pre match interview that they will go flatout to score more goals the Scorchers started on fire and were 3-0 up by the end of the first half.
Leticia Chinyamula scored the first goal just eight minutes into the match.
Moments later Sabina Thom was on target from the spot after a Video Assistant Referee Intervention following a foul on Faith Chinzimu.
Asimenye Simwaka’s 27-minute strike gave the Scorchers a comfortable 3-0 lead as the much went into recess.
There were two half time changes with Catherine Kachala and Sarah Mulimbika replacing Mary Chavinda and Carolyn Mathyola respectively.
Just five minutes into the second half , Kachala set Chinyamula to score her second goal of the match.
VAR was again involved at 64 minutes as Sabina Thom was brought down and a penalty kick was awarded to the Scorchers, which Thom converted to make it 5-0.
The Scorchers could not stop scoring as Chinyamula claimed her hattrick nine minutes later while Sabina grabbed hers at 77 minutes.
Substitute Catherine Kachala registered her name on the score sheet five minutes to the end of the match before Maureen Kenneth scored the team’s ninth goal from the spot in the dying minutes of the game, again after VAR intervention.
Coach Fazili was the happiest man after his girl’s show.
“The performance has been extremely good and this is what we planned during our training and it seems the girls took the instructions correctly.
“We played three defenders and more attackers because we knew how important scoring was to us and it has worked for us,” said Fazili.
In the other group B match Botswana and Madagascar drew 0-0.
The Scorchers will face group C Winners in the semifinal which will be played on October 31st.
Lineup:
Mercy Sikelo (Esther Maulidi 90+6′), Faith Chinzimu, Patricia Nyirenda, Asimenye Simwaka, Tendai Sani (Jessie Yosefe 88′), Sabina Thom (Chisomo Banda 88′), Maureen Kenneth, Leticia Chinyamula, Mary Chavinda (Catherine Kachala 46′), Carolyne Mathyola (Sarah Mulimbika 46′), Rose Alufandika.
