* Malawian fans fear the worst as Flames drawn with Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire alongside Mozambique
* Malawi can beat Cameroun — football has changed
* A very good litmus test for our AFCON qualification
News that the Flames have been paired alongside African giants, Cameroun and Côte d’Ivoire together with neighbors Mozambique for the 2022 FIFA World Cup group stage qualifiers, has been received with heavy apprehension.
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But others believe differently with Shepherd Yuda opining on Facebook that “Malawi can beat Cameroun [because] football has changed” over the years.
Mayamiko Mataya agrees, saying: “We can beat Cameroun — remember in 2010 we managed to beat Egypt at the Kamuzu Stadium with a goal scored by Chiukepo Msowoya?
“We drew against Côte d’Ivoire at Kamuzu Stadium; we won against Tunisia, we won against the mighty Algeria at the [2010 Africa Cup of Nations ] AFCON in Angola.
“If we won against big teams like Uganda and qualify for the AFCON, we are also going to win — just being strong, we will conquer and will be in Qatar [for the 2022 FIFA World Cup].”
Elias Buanamussa sneered at the Indomitable Lions, saying: “Don’t be afraid of Cameroun, Cameroun is nothing right now — it is just a name.”
Chumachiyenda Chitedze hinted that this is a “very good litmus test for Flames AFCON qualification” and all it needs is to prepare well for the tough encounters.
While Thom Muhondo opined that this is good group for Malawi which can be used to gauge the Flames’ strengths and weaknesses to learn on how to tackle giants like Cameroun; Côte d’Ivoire and even Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia etc.
I love this confidence and the desire for the Flames to indeed play against these supposedly continental giants. We should never give up before we try it. For how long shall we skip them. And when we do face them, we get beaten.
All it needs is indeed to prepare well for the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers as the Flames start the fixture away to Cameroun between June 5-8, 2021 before hosting Mozambique on match day 2 between June 11-14.
Then we will be up against Côte d’Ivoire in back-to-back fixtures— starting at home between September 1-4 and away between September 5-8.
Flames’ last home match will be against Cameroun between October 6-9 and wind up the campaign away in Mozambique between October 10-12.
The winners of the 10 groups will qualify for the next round where they will face off to identify the five teams that will qualify for the Qatar finals.
Coronavirus alert
Analyzing all the 10, each group is tough and certainly will provide some upsets – they are:
Group A: Niger, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Algeria
Group B: Zambia, Tunisia, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea
Group C: Nigeria, Liberia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic
Group D: Malawi, Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroun
Group E: Uganda, Rwanda, Mali, Kenya
Group F: Libya, Gabon, Egypt, Angola
Group G: Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia
Group H: Togo, Senegal, Namibia, Congo
Group I: Sudan, Morocco, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea
Group J: Tanzania, Madagascar, DR Congo, Benin
Algeria’s last qualifying match
None of the teams are underdogs to Flames anymore. If we do get beaten by fellow teams from the Confederation of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), it means football has indeed changed — no one is an underdog.
The Flames AFCON qualifying group had Uganda, South Sudan and Burkina Faso — it was not a walkover group by all means. The Flames deservedly qualified for the 2021 AFCON.
The biggest casualties for the 2021 AFCON qualifiers were the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa while Uganda were rated highly to sail through for their third consecutive appearance.
Uganda Cranes
The Cranes garnered seven points from a possible nine by the halfway stage in Group B and seemed certainly to finish among the top two but they were shocked by underdogs South Sudan whom the Flames beat twice.
They also stumbled by drawing with Burkina Faso, leaving them needing a point in Malawi to go through, which they lost.
The same can happen in this World Cup qualifying group in which if we should go to the drawing board in as far as taking advantage of home games and being cautious of the away assignments — the other teams will be beating each other as well propelling the Flames.
President Chakwera and the triumphant Flames
I agree with FAM president Walter Nyamilandu when he asked President Lazarus Chakwera that there was need to change the model which government currently uses to fund the association.
Nyamilandu said this when the President hosted the team soon after beating Uganda, saying the AFCON qualification has given the team great momentum and FAM plans to build on this momentum to participate in more international tournaments — be it friendlies or the coming World Cup qualifiers.
He said for this to happen, FAM needs more funding specifically for the Flames and he proposed that the Treasury should be funding the association directly unlike the current model where funds are channelled through the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
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That’s why I say that no African team is an underdog for the Flames because those we deemed to be so from the COSAFA — such Eswatini, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar etc have beaten or caused us some problems because their governments invested heavily on them.
What the Flames need is good exposure and certainly we have it up against Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire and including Mozambique — who are equally very tough.
So I say, let’s go into the qualifiers with a positive mind and unprecedented funding from government that will be an investment for the future so that we should never cower away from the so called giants such as Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Senegal or Morocco.
