Malawi, SA seal semi places at Cosafa Cup

Malawi and South Africa have booked their places in the semifinals of the 2023 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup where they will join Lesotho, but for defending champions Zambia there is an anxious wait to see if they will be in the Last 4.

Hosts South Africa finished top of Group A in Durban, while Malawi made it three wins from three to claim Group B and set up a semifinal with Lesotho on Friday.

South Africa will meet either Zambia or Mauritius in the next stage, with those two teams still in the running to be the best-placed runner-up. In order to for Mauritius to earn their spot though, they need to beat Mozambique by four goals in their final Group C game on Wednesday.

South Africa came from behind for the third time in as many games to beat Eswatini 2-1. The latter took the lead on 51 minutes through Bongwa Matsebula, but a brace from Tshegofatso Mabasa in the final 15 minutes swung the game in the favour of Bafana Bafana.

The other match in the pool between Namibia and Botswana ended in a 0-0 draw.

Malawi made it three wins from three in the pool stages as they defeated Comoros 2-0 and have still yet to concede a goal in the competition, storming into the semifinals as they search for their first Cosafa Cup title. 

Chawanangwa Kaonga scored a penalty for The Flames, before Patrick Mwaungulu added a second to make sure of the points.  If you include their final game of 2022, Malawi have now won four Cosafa Cup matches in a row for the first time in their history, a pleasing return for coach Patrick Mabedi.   

Zambia put themselves in contention as the best-placed runner-up with a thumping 4-2 victory over Seychelles, though they conceded twice late on to hurt their goal-difference.

Zambia were rampant in the first 75 minutes as they scored four times through Albert Kangwanda, Killan Kanguluma, Golden Mashata and Fredrick Mulambia.

At that stage there were cruising, but after Brandon Labrosse pulled a goal back for Seychelles, their first of the tournament, Warren Mellie added an injury-time penalty.  

Group C concludes on Wednesday but Lesotho have already been confirmed as pool winners after taking six points from their two games to date. Both final games will kick-off at 15h00 CAT.     

Mauritius have three points and can only finish as the best runner-up. They will overhaul Zambia if they beat Mozambique by four goals in their final game that will be played at the Princess Magogo Stadium.

Across town at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Lesotho meet Angola in what is essentially a dead rubber, though both sides will be looking to finish the group on a high. – cosafa.com