Malawi’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) representatives Ascent Academy have themselves in a precarious position after falling 1-0 to UD de Lichinga of Mozambique in CAF Cosafa qualifiers.
Ascent, as hosts started the campaign on a promising noted after battling to a deserved 2-1 victory over Young Buffaloes of Botswana.
But the the loss to Lichinga, who drew 0-0 against Gaborone United in their Group B opening match, has thrown the competition in the group wide open.
The hosts will have to sweat blood in their last match to avoid crashing out and shatter their dreams of reaching the final and win the competition for them to book a ticket in the finals.
It was a tightly contested match as both teams created scoring opportunities, but failed to make the count.
After a barred first half, the hosts were given false hopes when Leticia Chinyamula scored in the 66th minute, but the referee cut short the partisan home crowd’s celebration after ruling out the goal for offside.
Efforts by both teams to get the better of each yielded to nothing until the visitors scored in the 76th through Cecelia Miguel.
The goal did not distract the youthful Malawi team who engaged an extra gear, but it was not enough to prevent them from dropping points and found in a tight corner for survival.
Ascent Academy coach Thom Mkolongo, who was former Malawi National Women’s Football Team, bemoaned lost chances as well as a timid approach to the game.
However, he was hopeful of progressing if they will fight to the end.
“We missed a lot of chances. In the next match, we will come back and we believe we will qualify in the semi-finals,” he said.
Lichinga coach Eduardo Bonomar said he was delighted to have beaten the hosts.
“We are happy to top the group with four points. It was a difficult match because we played the hosts,” he said.
In Group A, Zimbabwe’s Herentals are closing in on semi-finals qualification with six points while University of Western Cape from South Africa and Zambia’s Green Buffaloes.
The tournament started on August 15 and will run up to August 26.
