Today at the King Zwelithini stadium in Durban, South Africa, Zambia defeated Comoros 2-1 to resume their Hollywoodbet COSAFA Cup title defense.
The Malawian flames defeated the Chipolopolo lads 1-0 in their opening Group B match last week.
In today’s game, the Chipolopolo boys took the lead through Frederick Mulambia in the 51st minute. However, the island nation drew even through Affane Djambae in the 66th minute following a mistake on defense, and in the 74th minute, Albert Kangwanda scored the game-winning goal for the defending champions to take all three points.
Moses Sichone, the team’s coach, was ecstatic with his team’s response following their first-game loss.
In the post-match interview, he remarked, “We looked better than our first game; the boys tried to correct the mistakes that we made in the first game, which was positive; we needed the three points for us to continue dreaming; we just have to work on the negative.”
After Malawi won the first game, Sichone made four changes to the team, which he explained.
“Yes, we had to analyse the game with my coaching staff, so looking at the game that Comoros played against Seychelles, we thought that it was necessary to make some changes. Some players didn’t do better, so we thought that’s why we picked 23 players; if one is not ready, others are there to do better,” he explained.
Sichone notes repeated defensive errors
“Of course, I said that even in the first match, we have got a lot of young players, so that is something that we need. Even before this game against Comoros, I emphasised that they need to communicate. We saw that silly mistake that happened during the match. If you are not able to communicate, that is bound to happen in the game of football,” he said.
The Chipolopolo boys have maintained their winning run against Comoros at the Cosafa tournament, as they have managed to beat the island nation on all four occasions in their history.
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In order to progress to the next round, the Chipolopolo boys will need to beat Seychelles in their last Group game on Tuesday and hope that the match between Malawi and Comoros ends in a draw.