Preview: Malawi vs. South Africa

Sports Mole previews Sunday’s COSAFA Cup clash between Malawi and South Africa, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Malawi and South Africa will go head to head for third place at the 2023 COSAFA Cup in Sunday’s encounter at the King Zwelithini Stadium.

Malawi were dumped out on penalties by Lesotho in the semi-final, while host nation South Africa fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat against Zambia.

Match preview

Despite playing majority of the game with a man advantage, Malawi failed to see off the threat of Lesotho in Friday’s last-four encounter.

Patrick Mabedi’s men trailed to Jane Thaba Ntso’s opener but soon drew level through Chawanangwa Kaonga’s equaliser which took the game to penalties where the Flames failed to convert any of their opening three spot-kicks.

That was a first defeat in six matches across all competitions for Malawi since they were emphatically beaten 4-0 by Egypt in the AFCON qualifiers.

Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have come out on top in just one of the previous 10 editions of this fixture across all competitions.

Having already recorded their best-ever COSAFA Cup finish, the East Africans will now be looking to end the competition on a positive note.

From a seemingly strong position, South Africa were on the receiving end of a 2-1 defeat against Zambia at the Princess Magogo Stadium on Friday evening.

Morena Ramoreboli’s men took the lead through Tshegofatso Mabasa before goals from Golden Mashata and Albert Kangwanda turned the game on its head.

That loss brought an end to the Bafana Bafana’s 10-game unbeaten run which kicked off in September 2022 with a 4-0 demolition of Sierra Leone.

While a third-place is not what they hoped to achieve on home turf at the beginning of the competition, South Africa will be looking to put on a show for their supporters nonetheless.

Malawi COSAFA Cup form:

Malawi form (all competitions):

South Africa COSAFA Cup form:

South Africa form (all competitions):

Team News

Chawanangwa Kaonga has netted in his last two appearances for Malawi and the 28-year-old will be looking to come up with the goods once again.

Kaonga is expected to be joined in attack by Jaccama Kumwembe who will be looking to add to his one COSAFA Cup goal so far which came against Seychelles in the group stages.

South Africa’s Tshegofatso Mabasa currently sits at the top of the scoring charts with three strikes, making him one to keep an eye on here.

Lancaster Human had to make do with a place on the bench against Zambia last time out but the midfielder could earn a recall to the starting XI for this one.

Malawi possible starting lineup:
Munthali; Sanudi, Mwase, Chembezi; Idana, Mwaungulu, Aaron, Lungu, Nkhoma; Kaonga, Kumwembe

South Africa possible starting lineup:
Mzimela; Lakay, Mohamme, Allan, Sikhakhane; Cele, Mthethwa, Mogalia; Kapinga, Mabasa, Rayners

We say: Malawi 1-2 South Africa

With both teams still hurting from losing their respective semi-final ties, we are expecting an open and end to end affair. That said, we are tipping South Africa to narrowly edge out Malawi and claim a podium finish.

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