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Patrick Mabedi to announce squad today

Patrick Mabedi to announce squad today
Gomezgani Zakazaka

Malawi National Football Team Coach Patrick Mabedi is today expected to announce his squad for the back-to-back 2025 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Senegal.

Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the squad announcement would come ahead of the team’s departure Saturday.

Zakazaka said travel arrangements for the team would be made public after the announcement.

“The coach is expected to announce names of players for his team, probably on Friday. Logistics concerning the team are underway and we will provide more information in due course,” he said.

Mabedi will go into the match after being summoned by Fam’s technical sub-committee over his team’s poor performance, which saw it posting back-to-back losses last month.

The sub-committee’s chairperson Christopher Kuyera was quoted as saying Fam was not impressed with the Flames’ slip in form and player selection.

Football pundit Parly Chinyama said Mabedi would likely bring new faces into the squad.

“I am expecting him to call up some players who were not part of the squad during the Burundi and Burkina Faso matches. We should expect change,” Chinyama said.

The Flames started the qualifiers with a 3-2 loss to Burundi at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in Lilongwe before going down 3-1 to Burkina Faso in Bamako, Mali.

The two results left Malawi without a point and anchoring Group L.

The Flames will face Senegal on Friday next week in Dakar before meeting the former African champions again four days later at BNS.

Burkina Faso are leading the group with four points followed by Senegal with the same number of points while Burundi are third on three points.