{"id":26444,"date":"2022-07-10T21:24:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T21:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho"},"modified":"2022-07-10T21:45:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T21:45:44","slug":"flames-ready-for-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho","title":{"rendered":"Flames ready for Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>Head coach Mario Marinica is confident that the Flames can end Lesotho\u2019s six year unbeaten run against Malawi when the two sides clash in the 2022 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup Group B match at King Zwelithini in Durban, South Africa on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The two sides last met in COSAFA Cup in 2016 and Likuena won 1-0. The other two encounter ended in 1-1 draws in 2017 and 2018 international friendly matches. But Mario said the Flames can end the Likuena record.<\/p>\n

The Romanian tactician said: \u201cYes, Malawi has never beaten Lesotho since 2015. But as they say records are there to be broken. We hope we will have a good game and come out with positive results.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last edition the Flames did not make it past the group stage after two draws and one loss. Mario acknowledged that soccer fans are anxious for success at the regional tournament. However, the tactician said there is no need to panic and that he is not under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe there is such thing as pressure. Pressure is something you put your self under. Yes last Cosafa tournament Malawi didn\u2019t do well, But we hope that with our game plan we will go a step further this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Flames best performance in recent years was in 2015 when they won the Plate competition after they defeated Zambia. But Malawi failed to build from the Plate success and ended up being knocked out in first round for three consecutive years in 2016, 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n

Malawi bounced back in 2019 and managed to reach the quarterfinals. The Flames\u2019 effort to reach the semi-finals were thwarted once again by Zambia through penalty shoot-out.<\/p>\n

Relegated to Plate section, Malawi made it to the final but lost to hosts South Africa. Lesotho were also knocked out in group stage last edition. However, they have an impressive at COSAFA Cup record as they have been in the quarter-finals in 2016, semi-finals in 2017, 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n

They also finished third in 2018 after beating Madagascar in the third-place play-off. It Wednesday match, the Flames are spoiled of choice after Mario named captain John CJ Banda, Frank Gabadinho Mhango, Khuda Myaba, Chimwemwe Idana, Stain Davie, Stanley Sanudi, Micium Mhone, Yamikani Chester, Peter Banda and Chikoti Chirwa in his squad.<\/p>\n

His only setback in the opening match is the absnce of defender Gomezgani Chirwa who was refused entry into South Africa after losing his passport at OR Tambo International Airport. Likuena coach Veselin Jelusic, has also named a strong squad which held Ivory Coast in TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. Head coach Mario Marinica is confident that the Flames can end Lesotho\u2019s six year unbeaten run against Malawi when the two sides clash in the 2022 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup Group B match at King Zwelithini in Durban, South Africa on Wednesday. The two sides last met in COSAFA Cup in 2016 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":26443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[233,371,429,739,125,4901,234,3360],"class_list":["post-26444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-cosafa","tag-flames","tag-football","tag-lesotho","tag-malawi","tag-marian-mario-marinica"],"yoast_head":"\nFlames ready for Lesotho - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Head coach Mario Marinica is confident that the Flames can end Lesotho\u2019s six year unbeaten run against Malawi when the t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flames ready for Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Head coach Mario Marinica is confident that the Flames can end Lesotho\u2019s six year unbeaten run against Malawi when the t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-10T21:24:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-10T21:45:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_18-62cb486196ca9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1401\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1086\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Flames ready for Lesotho\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-10T21:24:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-10T21:45:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho\"},\"wordCount\":440,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_18-62cb486196ca9.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"cosafa\",\"flames\",\"football\",\"Lesotho\",\"Malawi\",\"Marian Mario Marinica\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/flames-ready-for-lesotho\",\"name\":\"Flames ready for Lesotho - 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