Malawi suffered their first home defeat against Tunisia in a 2026 World Cup qualifiers match played on Tuesday at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
Youssef Msakni converted from the spot with just three minutes to wind up the match after Mouez Hassen was brought down in the box by Lawrence Chaziya.
With the defeat, the Flames have dropped from third to fourth in group H standings following Namibia’s 2-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe today.
Tunisia are back on top and they are tied with Equatorial Guinea on six points. Namibia and Malawi are also tied on three points and they lay on third to fourth positions respectively.
The bottom two places are occupied by Liberia and Sao Tome and Principe who are still pointless.
But how we failed to get anything out of today’s encounter? We take a look…
- MIDFIELD PARTNERSHIP DID NOT WORK
Patrick Mabedi deployed midfield trio of Lloyd Aaron, Chimwemwe Idana and John Banda in a 4-3-3 formation.
The pairing did not work and the midfield was disjointed as Idana and Banda were pulled further apart in wide creating big space for Ferjan Sassi and Aissa Bilal Laidouni to make runs through the centre into Flames defense.
Idana also booked just after 8 minutes he changed position from deep laying holding midfielder to hide in flanks surrendering box to box role to John Banda who eventually got tired before the half-time, this forced Lloyd Aaron to sit further back closer to the Centre halves.
- POOR TACTICAL APPROACH
Malawi looked like they wanted to defend and use counterattacks which did not work due to lack of long range accurate passes and speed in the transition. This gave Tunisia a lot of time to read Flames movement particularly in the first half and after realizing that Flames weren’t a threat Tunisia came hard in the second half and suffocated all attempting attacks by Malawi.
Everyone expected Tunisia to be on the backfoot and try to find some spaces to counter attack, but they were the ones who dominated most of the possession and created a lot of decent chances. The only thing that saved Malawi was Tunisia’s approach of playing it safe and not committing too many players forwards and it became easy for their quartet of centre backs to manage the danger.
And also reading each others movement was another challenge for Malawi. At times in the first half Sanudi could move forward from the right side either hugging the touch line of moving into the half spaces sometimes but none provided him with an underlapping run or the support on the flanks. At least the left side where Tatenda M’balaka was assisted by Wisdom Mpinganjira but he wasn’t threat at all in attacking third.
- LACK OF QUALITY BETWEEN THE LINES
Like Tunisia, Malawi often placed three players centrally between the lines to receive. However, the aggressive Tunisia press and poor passing in attacking zone and securing of the ball meant Malawi were unable to find Kanjira as Flames’ highest attacker. This means wide players all struggled to get on the ball in any space away from pressure in central spaces, and Malawi only registered a single attempt on goal in the second half and in the first half they had three attempts on goal all from a far.
- POOR MARKING
Flames invited more pressure in the second half after deciding to sit at the back when the game was still goalless. This gave opportunity for Tunisia to camp into Flames half and manoeuvre at ease into Flames box and after more pressure, Chaziya conceded a penalty which could have been avoided. Despite making a number of blocks and clearances Chaziya failed to close down and prevent Mouez Hassen from crossing the ball but he decided to tackle in the box which was wrong considering that the North African are expert of diving.
DOUBLE PIVOT PERFECTION FOR THE VISITORS
Tunisia coach Jalel Kadri showed Malawi respect by altering the configuration of his central midfield, bringing Ferjani Sassi into his starting XI as a double pivot alongside Ala Ghram. It was a tactical decision which paid off handsomely.
Together at the base of the engine room they screened service into Olson Kanjira and Christopher Kumwembe magnificently, limiting both to less than five touches in Tunisia box.
The duo protected the central spine superbly with a number of important interceptions, tackles and ball recoveries.
