Daka double douses Flames

And it was his second-half substitute Billy Daka who delivered the win with two late wonder goals before picking the Player of the Match award.

“I feel good about the win. From the start, we were fighting and fought hard for this win. The coach told us how important it was to win the first game and teamwork really worked and if we continue like this, we will go far,” he said.

Malawi coach Mapopa Msukwa said the better team won saying Zambia dominated them and were able to re-organise better when they did not have the ball.

“Of course, I am not happy with the result but it was a good game, a fantastic match and Zambia deserved to win it. They dominated and tough luck to us but we will catch up. We will work on the midfield because we were slow in attack and we will recover against Comoros,” he said.

In the game, Zambia saw three goals called back before the two stood.

The first of those came from Thomas Mwanza in the 20th minute but was chalked off before Kayula Chununda scored in the 37th minute after great work by first-half substitute Abel Nyirongo but the goal was called back, no thanks to the Football Video Support (FVS).

The FVS is an innovation which, unlike the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), does not have an official in the video room but allows the head coach to request a review of a possible missed infringement.

Mwanza scored again in the 65th minute but was caught offside before second-half substitute Billy Daka’s late charge, starting with a top-drawer header in the 79th minute off a Jonathan Kalimina delivery.

And in injury time, Malawi got to use the FVS review in added time after a Samson Ngoma challenge on Mwisho Mhango in the box hoping for a penalty but the referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge as Zambia survived.

But Daka was not done yet as he pounced moments later with a well-chested ball before smacking it in to secure a two-goal win for Zambia.