Copper Queens return home as Bruce Mwape bemoans missed chances

The Copper Queens could only manage to collect a point on Wednesday in Lilongwe in the first round the first leg of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifier as they played to a 1-1 draw with the Scorchers of Malawi.

Coach Bruce Mwape was left a little disappointed as he expected a better result from the game, considering how well his girls played.

“The results of this game are are not the true reflection of how we played, because, in the whole 90 minutes, we dominated the play,” Mwape said.

Mwape told the ZamFoot Crew in a post-match interview that his girls lacked composure when they were in front of goal, having had so many chances and only getting one is worrisome said Mwape.

“The finishing was very poor, if only we had patience at goal, we could have scored more goals,” Mwape said

Looking forward to the return leg Mwape says he has spotted the weaknesses of the girls and that will be worked on before Tuesday when the two sides will lock horns in Lusaka.

“We have Identified the mistakes we have made and we Will try to work on them, especially in the scoring aspect,” he said.

“We have played with Malawi several times and we know they are a strong side, and we just have to take them seriously in the return leg.”

Meanwhile, McNelbert Ogrive Kasuwa is positive that his team will bag the maximum points in the return leg if only they can work extra hard.

McNelbert also revealed that he had identified the areas in which the team was slacking and assures improvement in the second leg.

“We are going to work on the mistakes that we made, especially on the finishing part, we have the chances to win, and we Will work very hard,” he said.

“We lost it in the midfield, where we were a bit loose, and also the upfront wasn’t all that constructive, chances were created and if only we utilized those chances we would have emerged as winners.”

“We had a lot of loopholes in the first half which saw our opponents getting through and scoring the first goal, but that changed in the second half and managed to get a goal,” he concluded.

The Copper Queens have since returned home ahead of the next Week’s encounter. The Copper Queens touched down at Kenneth Kaunda international airport at 18:10hrs.

The Copper Queens and the Scorchers will square off on Tuesday at Lusaka’s Nkoloma Stadium to determine who qualifies to the next round where they will meet either Namibia or Tanzania who also played their first leg with the Brave Gladiators winning 2-1 at the expense of the Twiga Stars.

A scoreless draw or a victory of any margin will be enough for the Copper Queens to progress to the next round while The Scorchers will be hoping for a scoring draw of more than one goal or a victory too to advance to the second round.