The battle lines were drawn. All eyes on the ultimate prize. But in all grand of schemes, one had to smile while the other cry.
But it was the owners of the tuff who went home with smiles across the miles. And, fate ruled.
Perhaps, it was written in the stars and not in the flames of fire.
It has ended in tears for the Malawi Flames as wounded and angry Lions Equatorial Guinea bagged three points after walloping the south-easten Sub-Saharan visitors with a late goal in a 1-0 do or die tussle in in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers at Nuevo Estadio de Malabo on Monday.
The hosts, Equatorial Guinea scored the lone goal through Edu Salvador in the 81st minute of the game to douse out the flames.
Malawi went into the game as underdogs but they put up a gallant fight holding the Nzalang Nacional to a goalless draw for almost the entire game with the hosts netting a goal home just nine minutes before regulated time.
Equatorial Guinea have won each of their last eight competitive home matches since 2019 went into the game against Malawi to maintain that record and looking to extend that impressive unbeaten run.
While the Malawi Flames were looking to pick up where they left off against Sao Tome, they were in a Lion’s den for a tough 90 minutes against the hosts, Equatorial Guinea, who are known to be rock-solid on home soil in their backyard.
That said, Malawi were no push-overs as they gave everything but it wasn’t meant to be.
Before the match Flames coach Patrick Mabedi said his charges were all set, ready and steady for a first ever encounter with Equatorial Guinea in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier on Monday afternoon but admitted that they were facing a tough opponent.
Coming from a 3-1 home win over Sao Tome last Thursday at Bingu Stadium in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, Malawi faced a wounded opponent who lost 1-0 away to Tunisia last week, and just a few days after FIFA nullified their first two wins in the campaign for fielding an ineligible player.
Speaking after his troops trained at the Match venue, Estadio Malabo on Sunday afternoon, Mabedi said the Flames understand the difficulty of the assignment as they are facing a stronger and determined side.
“We know that Equatorial Guinea is a better side and now they are hungry for points after losing those six points due to the FIFA decision.
“But my boys are here on a mission to compete and get results. We are looking forward to win this game.
“Much as we respect our opponents, we do not fear them. We have told the boys to be on top of their game and attack and not sit back defending like how most teams do when they are playing away.
“The six points that we have now are history and even the boys know that this is a new game and we need to concentrate without looking at how we have performed this far,” said Mabedi.
But the Mabedi-led boys despite playing well, they were not good enough to beat one of Africa’s exciting sides.
After the game, Mabedi said: “The boys gave everything. We were just unlucky,” said.
Head-to-head
The Flames are now sitting on fourth position after the loss in the group H with Tunisia leading the standings followed by Namibia and Liberia.
Equatorial Guinea suffered a huge blow in their quest for a place in the 2026 World Cup as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia at the Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi last Wednesday.
With nothing to separate the two nations heading into the final 10 minutes of the game, Ferencvaros man Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane came up clutch for the hosts as he converted his 82nd-minute penalty to force a share of the spoils.
Prior to that, Equatorial Guinea took a six-point deduction after they were forced to forfeit their opening two matches by FIFA after fielding an ineligible player in their opening two games.
With their midweek defeat, Juan Micha’s men have now lost three of their last four matches across all competitions, including a 1-0 loss to 10-man Equatorial Guinea in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations round-of-16 back in January.
Equatorial Guinea will be backing themselves to get their qualifying quest up and running this weekend as they now return home, where they have won each of their last nine competitive matches, scoring 12 goals and keeping eight clean sheets, since a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia in the AFCON qualifiers back in November 2019.
Malawi, on the other hand, returned to winning ways in the qualifiers as they picked up a 3-1 victory over Sao Tome and Principe at the Bingu National Stadium a day after Equatorial Guinea’s defeat.
Striker Chawawangwa Kaonga and attacker Lanjesi Nkhoma scored inside the opening 15 minutes to put the Flames in front and after Denilson Silva pulled one back in the 67th minute, before winger Chifundo Mphasi struck home a beauty 11 minutes later to see off the the low-ranked visitors from any comeback scare.
Malawi had kicked off their qualifying campaign on November 17 when they secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Liberia at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex, four days before suffering a 1-0 home defeat against Tunisia.
Mabedi’s men have picked up six points from their three matches in Group H to occupy third place in the standings and could move level with first-placed Tunisia with all three points on Monday.
“The boys gave everything. We were just unlucky.”
Patrick Mabedi
Malawi National Team Coach
