Battle for second position heats up
The first round of the 2020 TNM Super League season ends today and all eyes will be on second-placed Nyasa Big Bullets and third-placed Civo United fighting to finish second.
Defending champions Bullets have 26 points—a point ahead of Civo—which gives both teams an element of pressure as they host TN Stars and Be Forward Wanderers respectively.
Th People’s Team missed an opportunity last week to close in on Silver after conceding a late Maxwell Gasten Phodo’s goal that extended the Central Bankers lead to nine points.
The loss was a bitter pill to swallow for Zimbabwean coach Kalisto Pasuwa, who said in his pre-match press briefing that the players should put it behind them.
He said: “We need to be positive in whatever we are doing. We played our last match against Silver Strikers in Lilongwe in which we didn’t do well in terms of how we brought ourselves to the game.”
Pasuwa appealed to his charges not to treat 10th-placed TN Stars with contempt.
“We have been trying to bring back the confidence for us to start collecting points [again] and it’s only us who are responsible to take the club out of the situation we are in,” he said.
TN Stars coach Joseph Malizani said they need to win the game.
“We started well, but the suspension of the league due to Covid-19 for six weeks caused us to lose our steam,” he said.
On the hand, Civo United team manager Gabriel Chirwa said they need to win against Wanderers to stay on course for the title.
“We want to finish the first round with a win. This is a must win game and we will fight hard to put our title hopes back on track,” he said.
Wanderers coach Bob Mpinganjira also said they need to win to get out of the middle table.
Ekwendeni Hammers frustrated Civo United last week by holding them to a goalless draw.
