Egypt humiliate Flames on home soil: Fire the coach
Egypt’s Pharaohs have given a bitter dose of football lesson after thrashing the Malawi Flames at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on Tuesday with three quick-fire goals in the first 20 minutes.
While the home fans were hoping for a revenge on the 2-0 defeat Malawi suffered on Friday in reverse fixture of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, the visitors fired warning shots barely four minutes into the match when they registered on the scored through Tarek Mohamed.
Before Malawi reorganised, Egypt doubled the advantage through Omar Marmoush in the 16th minute, pouncing on reckless and irresponsible defensive error between Dennis Chembezi and Stanley Sanudi, who grew cold feet to fail to clear a ball form harm’s way.
It also did not do any good the Cameroon Africa Cu of Nations finals hero goalkeeper who could have done better to save the situation.
It was not over as Liverpool star Mo Salah rubbed salt to Flames wound when he scored the third in the 20th minute to put the match beyond the hots’ imagination to save it.
Although Malawi created their own chances in the first half, the lack of purpose, vision and ambition saw them wasting opportunities, notably through Stern Davie, Gabadinho Mhango, Franciso Madinga.
Efforts by the hosts to save the situation was worsened by Ahmed Mostaf Sayed who drove the last nail on the Flames coffin in the 49th minute.
The result has ruled the Flames out of the race with Egypt and Guinea tied on nine points in Group D, but the Pharaohs have a better goal difference to top.
During the match, Football Association of Malawi president Walter Nyamilandu was taunt with a section of fans baying for his blood to step down.
During post match interviews, Flames coach, whose football philosophy has been criticised since he controversially took over from Meck Mwase, said he would not quit.
He called for patience and move on in his what is becoming a futile mission to restore rekindle the Flames.
“We had five shots on target and they had five. They scored four goals and we didn’t score a goal. I am not a quitter and will fight on. We had good patches today and played good football despite not scoring,” he said.
While Egypt coach Rui Vtiroia boasted that they had studied Malawi during the first leg
“We were very intelligent today going inside the game. From the first game, we already understood the way Malawi play and we knew what to do. We were good and fast on the ball,” he said through a translator.
Malawi will now face Ethiopia away and Guinea at home in matches which will not make any difference to the botched u campaign.
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