By Edwin Mbewe
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi National Football team caretaker Patrick General Mabedi is impressed with local players preparations ahead of Ethiopia encounter.
The coach however is expected to release the final squad for the 2023 Ivory Coast Africa Cup of Nations match against Ethiopia in Maputo, Mozambique on June 20, 2023.
Mabedi told news conference on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 when the local based players concluded a three week pre-camping at Mpira Village, Chiwembe township, Blantyre.
The local players have been training for three days a week for the past three weeks.
“The preparations have been well so far. A few players had knocks but we managed to rehabilitate them and are fit now. We therefore welcomed Alick Lungu who is also coming from injury but now an assessment by our medical team shows that he is fine.
“The squad is good and the boys are putting in more energy. So far we are looking forward to see how they will mix with the foreign based. We are leaving early because we want the boys to have enough time to train with foreign based players and also to get used to the environment in Mozambique,” said Mabedi.
He added that will wait for the boys to play weekend Super League games before releasing the final squad for proper assessment before final squad is released.
Before the AFCON Qualifier, Flames play Mozambique in an friendly match on June 14 2023.
Malawi are in a tight situation and wishing miracles to happen for them to qualify to the finals of the 2023 continental showpiece in Ivory Coast.
They have to win against Ethiopia and Guinea with more goals and avoid conceding any and pray that Egypt and Guinea also loses their final two matches in the campaign for them to qualify.
Malawi are on position 3 in group D with 3 points from 4 games. Flames have won once against Ethiopia 2-1 at home Bingu National Stadium, lost to Guinea 1-0 in Conakry and against Egypt back to back 6-0 in aggregate where they lost 2-0 in Cairo before suffering a 4-0 home defeat in the capital Lilongwe.
