GREAT ESCAPE
ZAMBIA will face defending champions of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), Zimbabwe, after surviving a big scare from Malawi Flames.
Chipolopolo overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat alawi on penalty shootouts following a draw in the second uarter final played last night at rincess agogo tadium in Durban, outh frica.
wo second half goals from orest angers stri er, ustin uwowo, and wa i’s mmanuel Chabula, rescued the Chipolopolo boys from suffering a shoc ing defeat to alawi, who were dumped out of the C senior challenge after the loss to Zambia.
uwowo ga e Zambia hope when he beat alawi’s shot stopper rnest a hobwe with a beautiful low shot from outside the eighteen yard to ma e it after alawi’s first and second half goals through obadinho hango and erald hiri.
Zambia benefited from a hobwe’s clumsy mista e which saw him failing to clear a bouncing ball which stri er
apson aseba got hold of and set up Chabula who tapped it in with ease for the game to be decided on
penalties.
alawi had dominated play from the first whistle and bro e the deadloc two minutes after ic off through uhango who beat goal eeper ebastian wange with a low shot which was de ected into the bac of the net by a Chipolopolo defender.
The lames almost grabbed the second goal through uhango whose sublime shot was de ected for a corner fi e minutes into the first half. Zambia’s first chance to le el the scores came th minute when man a arous set up rnest whose in the top ambole bewe disappointing shot was easily sa ed by the alawian shot stopper.
he alawian goal eeper produced a double sa e in the nd minute, denying ambole and aseba who had a uiet game in the first half to maintain alawi’s lead at brea .
he lames went up fi e minutes into the second half when erald hiri con erted a penalty which alawi won when enson a a a committed a foul inside the eighteen yard bo . he goal appeared to ma e Zambia’s e it almost a reality. ut the tables turned when the Zambian league’s top scorer, uwowo restored Zambia’s hopes when he added his name on the score sheet after benefiting from bewe’s assist in the th minute.
ith only a minute before the final whistle, alawi lost focus and allowed the Chipolopolo to e ualise through wa i C’s speedy winger Chabula who benefited from aseba’s unselfish play for the game to end .
alawi regretted their actions as they missed two of their penalty ic s to lose to Zambia who marched on to the semi finals of the regional Cosafa championship which earlier saw the host nation outh frica gi ing up a lead to lose on penalties to otswana to crash out of the competition.