* I don’t think Bullets did anything to deserve to win this game—Silver coach Peter Mponda
* In football, sometimes you need luck to win games and this is what exactly happened
Maravi Express
Nyasa Big Bullets have defended the Airtel Top 8 title following their 1-0 victory over Silver Strikers at Bingu National Stadium yesterday — making history as the first team to achieve the feat since the competition was introduced in 2017.
On top of that, Bullets have won the record third Airtel Top 8 title after they also won it in 2021 and 2023 and they have also beaten Silver in two consecutive Airtel Top 8 finals after 5-3 post-match penalties victory at Kamuzu Stadium in 2021.
It was a final between the two most successful teams in the competition and lived up to its expectations and Bullets showed that class is permanent but form is temporary when they won the tournament in style against a resilient Silver, who had not lost a match in open play this season.
Enerst Petro made the difference when he headed in from Alick Lungu’s cross in the 71st minute after a short corner from substitute Chikumbutso Salima, who had replaced injured Chrispine Mapemba.
Petro, who was unmarked beat Silver goalkeeper George Chikooka with an intelligent header to send Bullets fans into wild celebrations.
Towards the end of the match, Silver had chances to take the game into dreaded penalty shootouts but lacked killer punch upfront.
Substitute Gift Chunga volleyed his effort over the bar after a good delivery from fellow substitute Misheck Selemani, who was facing his former club.
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Nigerian striker Babatunde Adepoju had a chance to bury the game but his header went over the bar from close range. Later on, Yamikani Mologeni denied Chinsinsi Maonga the equaliser when he made a goal line clearance after goalkeeper Richard Chimbamba was already beaten.
Bullets have won the Airtel Top 8 without conceding but scoring five goals in four matches.
In post match interview, Silver’s coach Peter Mponda said it was painful defeat, saying: “I don’t think Bullets did anything to deserve to win this game. In football, sometimes you need luck to win games and this is what exactly happened.”
On his part, Bullets coach Kalisto Pasuwa admitted after the match that Silver gave them a good run for their money: “A very tactical game where most of time in first half we tried to close some spaces, the opposition dominated but they were playing on the sides.
“In the second half, we tried to push up numbers in our attack and we got a goal, then we missed another sitter. But these are cup games where you do not need beautiful football but the result, we won it.”—Content by Fam.mw; edited by Maravi Express
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