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Mandla Mpofu

Mehluli Sibanda in Moruleng, South Africa
THE Young Warriors have been eliminated from the Cosafa Under-20 Youth Championships in the first round after Zambia defeated Malawi 3-0 in the last Group B fixture here yesterday.

The result saw Zambia, who beat Zimbabwe  5-1 on Tuesday, top the three-team group with six points.

Malawi and Zimbabwe finished with a point each from their goalless stalemate but the Young Flames go through to the knockout stage because they conceded three goals while the Young Warriors let in five.

Zimbabwe needed Zambia to beat Malawi 4-0 in order for the Mandla “Lulu” Mpofu’s charges to sneak into second place and take on the top team from Group D for a place in the semi-finals.

Zambia, who have come under scrutiny amid claims from their country that some, if not most of their players could be way over 20 years, found the target in the 25th minute, man-of-the-match Chrispine Sakulanda hitting the back of the net.

Patson Daka found the second goal for the Zambians in the 76th minute from close range.

Fashion Sakala scored the third goal for Zambia with five minutes to go after a delightful move.

Daka’s flashing header went wide off target in the third of the four minutes added on and with that                went Zimbabwe’s hopes of progressing to the next round.

“It’s so sad, very sad that we are going back home, remember that we came here as one of the favourites, maybe to lift the cup, we have done well previously, we have produced players in this tournament previously but I might say that we learnt the hard way,” said Mpofu.

“The only thing that we can do is simple and straight forward, go to basics, we must prepare for these tournaments that’s the only way we can progress as a country remember I only had seven days to prepare but in those seven days I think after three days, Cosafa wanted the team list so it wasn’t good enough.”

Team captain Nelson Chadya said it was painful for them to be heading home.

“It’s so painful to be going home so early, when we came here we were aiming to play in the final so it hurts to be going home so fast.

“Against Zambia we made so many mistakes and Zambia took those to their advantage, against Malawi we created chances but we failed to score,’’ said Chadya.