Head Coach for Karonga United has sent warning shots to Nyasa Big Bullets ahead of the Airtel Top 8 Cup quarter-final clash slated for November 5 at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.
Airtel Top 8 Cup season 5 kicks off this weekend with a mouth-watering clash between the Crocodiles and the defending Champions, Nyasa Big Bullets who beat Silver Strikers on December 18 last year at Kamuzu Stadium.
In Cups, Karonga United have no tangible record against Bullets. The two teams only met twice in Cup games and Bullets managed to go through the next phase in both matches.
Their first Cup-game meeting was in 2017 when they faced off in the Fisd Challenge Cup and Nyasa Big Bullets thumped Karonga United 4-2 at Kamuzu Stadium. Bright Munthali scored a hat-trick before Jimmy Zakakaza netted a fourth goal while Anthony Mfune who is now playing for Bullets scored a brace.
Again, in 2019, they also met in the same Cup and Bullets had to rely on penalties after a 1-all stalemate in regulation time with Hassan Kajoke on target for Kalisto Pasuwa’s boys while Misheck Seleman who is now playing for Bullets scored for Karonga United.
While managing only two wins in their 14 meetings, Karonga United have been giving Nyasa Big Bullets a good run of their money and this can also happen this Saturday coupled by being a Cup game.
It is a two-legged fixture and Nyasa Big Bullets will need to do the job at Kamuzu Stadium as they have a bad record when playing away against the Crocodiles.
Out of their 9 wins against Karonga, six came while playing at home while only three came away from home.
In 2016, Nyasa Big Bullets suffered a 1-0 defeat at Mzuzu Stadium courtesy of Hygiene Mwendepeka’s free-kick strike before another defeat in 2020 at Karonga Stadium, thanks to Clement Nyondo’s goal
In the post-match interviews, Coach for Karonga, Christopher Nyambose says Nyasa Big Bullets should sweat blood if they are to ho through the next round.
"They should sweat blood for the victory, " said Nyambose. "We know that on paper, Bullets have an upper-hand but we are here for a mission. We are ready for the game and we need the win. People might underrate us, but they don't know what has brought us here, only us. [Bullets should not anticipate a walker-over, they will need to sweat Blood if they need to go through the next round.
"It's a two-legged fixture, we need to get something here before finishing the game at home in a reverse fixture.:
Kalisto Pasuwa in the post-match interviews, warned his charges not to underate the Crocodiles.
“Karonga United is a side not to underated and considering also the fact that it’s a Cup game. We need to work on our weaknesses of conceding early and it’s a thing that we, solidly, need to rectify our defensive part of it and then we also need to have goals coming," he said.
The people's team are coming from a 1-0 defeat to Mafco Football Club on Sunday at Dedza Stadium and Pasuwa said its now time to bounce back to the winning ways.
“It is essential for us to bounce back. It’s like we saw a crack when we were about to roof, which is one thing where we need to be very careful about it. At the end of the day, you might end up destroying the whole building, so we have been talking to the boys, and everyone in the house is aware that this is not the time to relax.
"Let’s go back to where we think we were making mistakes, but again if you saw the game that we played in Dedza, it’s a small mistake that you do on transitions and then a negative part also of going backwards and considering the surface of the pitch, we ended up conceding a goal, so we need to quickly look for what’s on the ground then work with the advantage of our side.
“We can’t be looking at that defeat. I need to motivate them, I need to talk to them, we need to sit down with each and everyone who is in the house to try and encourage these boys to say it’s over and let’s look at the games that are coming. It mustn’t affect the games that are coming in front of us. We need to be very positive, if you see me on the touchline, I try as much as I can to be motivating them. It’s not the time for me to be hammering them, it is the time to be praising them so that they can do better,” added Pasuwa.
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