TWIGA Stars face Malawi in a crucial COSAFA Women’s Championship group C match at Nelson Mandela University Stadium in South Africa today.
A win by either side will be enough to drive them into the knockout stage of the competition as such; the encounter likely to be extremely tough.
It will be a replica of last year’s finale whereby the country’s envoys excelled to stamp a slim 1-0 triumph to lift the prestigious trophy for the first time and are now defending it. For Malawi, they will be seeking to revenge for the painful setback they suffered while at the same time, Tanzanians are eager to continue their superiority over their opponents.
However, Bakari Shime’s side has just managed one win (3-0) against Comoros they registered in their inaugural match of the tournament before producing a barren draw with Botswana on Monday.
“They (Botswana) knew that they were playing against defending champions that is why they defended a lot and they seemed to be happy with the draw. “For us, we played well especially in the first half, we created numerous scoring chances but could not amicably utilise them…in the second half, we also tried our best but things could not work out,” said Shime after the game with Botswana.
However, as it stands, hosts South Africa command group A with 6 points followed by Mozambique with 4 points while Angola are third with a point and the fourth-placed Mauritius are point-less. In group B, Zambia dictate terms after collecting six points from two-game outings, while Namibia and Lesotho are tied on three points and Eswatini are rooted at the bottom with one point.
In group C, Tanzania and Malawi both have four points but the later have a good goal average after netting six goals against three converted by the former hence today’s match is tense and exciting to watch bearing in mind that both sides have good players capable of changing the game.
Twiga Stars play in the COSAFA zone competition as a guest team though this time they are there as defending champions.
