{"id":16141,"date":"2026-02-24T07:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/?p=16141"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:36:36","slug":"malawi-eyes-semifinals-but-angola-stands-in-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/?p=16141","title":{"rendered":"Malawi eyes semifinals, but Angola stands in the way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>By Blessings Bomati <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"857\" src=\"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-2.31.18-PM-1024x857.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16142\" srcset=\"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-2.31.18-PM-1024x857.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-2.31.18-PM-300x251.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-2.31.18-PM-768x643.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-2.31.18-PM-600x502.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-23-at-2.31.18-PM.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Head coach of the Malawi women\u2019s national football team, Lovemore Fazili, says he is confident that his players can reach the semifinals of the 2026 COSAFA Women\u2019s Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team faces Angola in their final match tomorrow in what is being termed a decider, as a win would boost Malawi\u2019s chances of qualifying for the semifinals, but only if Zimbabwe or Zambia lose their respective matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fazili says preparations for the crucial match against Angola have been going well and has reiterated his determination to win and collect six points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He expressed satisfaction with the players\u2019 readiness to secure a win and move to six points after the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDespite scoring several goals against Lesotho, the team has continued to focus on both scoring drills and defensive exercises in training. The players understand the importance of the match, and a win would provide a major boost to the squad as we aim to progress to the next stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Scorchers lost their opening game 2-0 to the South Africa women\u2019s national soccer team but bounced back strongly with an emphatic 8-1 victory over the Lesotho women\u2019s national football team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, their chances of progressing remain slim due to strong competition from the Zimbabwe women\u2019s national football team and the Zambia women\u2019s national football team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Malawi is currently second in Group A, ahead of Angola on goal difference, with both teams on three points, while Lesotho sits at the bottom of the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Blessings Bomati Head coach of the Malawi women\u2019s national football team, Lovemore Fazili, says he is confident that his players can reach the semifinals of the 2026 COSAFA Women\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,67,18,1],"tags":[69,73,70],"class_list":["post-16141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-sports","category-standard","category-uncategorized","tag-cosafa-womens-championship","tag-sports","tag-the-scorchers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16145,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16141\/revisions\/16145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timveni.org.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}