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Mafco 2 Civo 1
Mafco (0) 5 Silver (0) 6
Eagles 1 (5) Lions 1 (4)
Salima-based military outfit Mafco over the long weekend caused a stir in the Capital City when they dismissed Civil Service United (Civo) from the Charity Shield trophy before scaring giants Silver Strikers who had to wait for the dreaded penalty shootouts to sail through to the quarterfinals.
Playing both games at their home base of Lilongwe Community Centre, the soldiers saw off Civo via a 2-1 victory on Saturday and were just close to claiming another big fish on Monday when one of their stars Davie Banda had his penalty kick saved by Silver’s custodian Sibusiso ‘Shaka’ Padambo.
On Saturday, Duncan Linkomola shot the soldiers ahead with a powerful drive that deflected off a Civo defender before resting into the net.
Noel Mkandawire levelled the scores for Civo with a long range second half strike but the solders were back on the victory trail when Malumbo Mkandawire headed in the winner.
Came Monday, the Super League new comers posed a dangerous threat for Silver strikers, forcing the number two team in the Bakili Muluzi Super League to a nil-all draw after regulation time.
As per the Shield’s rules, the game had to go straight into penalty shootouts.
In the shootout Silver’s Shaba Phiri had his kick saved by Mafco’s goalkeeper Ganizani Kabwata.
This left the soldiers with a task of converting their next three kicks to carry the afternoon but Banda allowed Silver to come back when his poorly taken kick was saved by Padambo.
James Kaniche, Peter Wadabwa, Ulanda Kalua and Itaye Nundwe had converted their kicks with Gift Kadam’manja, Temwa Msuku, Linkomola Kamzingeni and Malumbo Mkandawire scoring for Mafco.
With the scores tied at 4-4, the game proceeded into sudden death kicks which saw Godfrey Banda and Thom Kayamba converting their kicks. McNeil Chitsundi scored the next one for Silver before Padambo stopped Lawrence Kamwazila’s shot. 6-5 in favour of Silver was the final result.
The bankers now face winners between Super Escom and Bakili Bullets which were playing on Tuesday as we went to press.
At Nankhaka Stadium on Sunday, Blue Eagles snatched victory from Red Lions’ nose when they pulled level at the dot of time before coming out victors in the resultant shootouts.
The Eagles scored all their five kicks through Kuruwa Ngwira, Davie Moya, Davie ‘Ngeya’ Kamanga, Billy Kamlanje and Andrew Mitengo with Red Lions scoring through Frank Phiri, Joseph Kumwenda, Patrick Fologonya and Wilfred Nyalugwe but Halton Tiyimbenawo shot against the post.
The Eagles take on Admarc Tigers in a quarterfinal tussle slated for Nankhaka Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
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