By Duncan Mlanjira
Malawi ?? national football team, coach Meke Mwase has recalled defender Lucky Malata as he prepares his team for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against South Sudan ?? on November 13 at home and Uganda ?? away on November 17.
Malata has since vowed to work harder in order to regain his position in the team he hasn’t been in since 2017.
Speaking after the Flames’ Wednesday morning training session, Malata thanked Mwase for offering him another chance with the Flames.
Malata going through the paces
“I don’t want to talk about why I decided to quit but all I can say is I am glad to be back.
“Let me thank the coaches for giving me the opportunity to come back into the squad because every player wants to be in the national team.
“Things have changed a lot since the last time I was with the team. There are a number of very good young players who are doing well.
Wednesday morning training session
“There is big competition here and it will not be easy for me to walk into the starting 11. I have to work hard, which I will definitely do to retain my position in the team,” Malata said.
The Flames squad of local based players started training on Monday morning ahead of the back to back 2012 AFCON qualifiers against South Sudan and Uganda next month.
Malawi ??, Uganda ?? and South Sudan ?? are in Group B together with Burkina Faso ??.
Coach Meke Mwase
A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including Cameroon who qualified automatically as hosts but are expected to participate in the qualifiers regardless of its ranking in the group.
Their matches and results will count in determining the qualification of the other teams from their group.
Group A has Chad ??, Mali ??, Guinea ?? and Namibia ?? while group C has São Tomé e Principe ??, Ghana ??, South Africa ?? and Sudan ??.
Malata joins these younger Flames generation
Group D has Gambia ??, DR Congo ??, Gabon ?? and Angola ?? while Group E has Morocco ??, Central African Republic, Burundi ?? and Mauritania ??, who will gunning for the second appearance at the finals having unruffled a some feathers at the 2019 finals.
Burundi ?? will also aiming for the second participation of this prestigious African football fiesta.
Group F has Cameroon ??, Cape Verde, Mozambique ?? and Rwanda while in Group G Egypt ?? are up against Kenya ??, Togo ?? and Comoros Islands.
North African giants, Algeria ?? are in Group H together with three Confederation of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) representatives — Zambia ??, Zimbabwe ?? and Botswana ??.
Group I has Senegal ??, Congo ??, Guinea-Bissau ?? and Eswatini ?? while in Group J, Tunisia ?? will be up against Angola ??, Tanzania ?? and Equatorial Guinea.
Cote d’Ivoire ?? are Group K with Niger ??, Madagascar ?? and Ethiopia while West African giants Nigeria ?? face Benin ??, Sierra Leone and Lesotho ?? in Group L.
Flames are also in the group qualifying stages of the 2022 Qatar World Cup after beating Botswana 1-0 on aggregate in the preliminary round.
The Flames now join 14 other winners from the preliminary round, who will joined by 26 nations that were seeded.
They will be divided into 10 groups of four teams each and at the end of the group stage, the 10 group winners will be paired, based on ranking, to compete in a two-legged play-off round.
During this group stage, the 5 higher ranked teams will play the first legs away and five winners from the group’s will represent Africa at the FIFA World Cup to be hosted by Qatar in 2022.