Malawi National Team Women’s Under 20, Young Scorchers, has stressed that it will raise its bar and address areas that need improvement to qualify for the first time at the Under-20 Women’s FIFA World Cup.
Captain for the team, Leticia Chinyamula, said the team is buzzing following their qualification.
Malawi is the only team from Southern Africa to qualify for the fourth round after they scorched Guinea Bissau 6-2 on aggregate.
South Africa were knocked out in the third round, 3-2 on aggregate against Ghana and Zambia were eliminated in the same round, 2-1 on aggregate against Uganda while Botswana were thumped 5-1 in both legs by Cameroon.
In the second round, Namibia were knocked out by Uganda 5-0 and Mozambique were sent packing by Botswana after a 3-1 loss. Angola were defeated 7-0 by Tanzania.
Chinyamula described Malawi’s progression as a milestone.
“It is not a small achievement, especially when you consider that in our previous appearances we failed to progress beyond the first round,” the captain said.
Next up, Malawi will face Nigeria in the fourth and final round between 1-3 May in the first leg and 8-10 May in the second round. Victor of this round will proceed to the World Cup which will be held in Poland from 5–27 September, 2026 in the cities of Łódź, Katowice, Sosnowiec and Bielsko-Biała.
Chinyamula stressed that the team remains focused on the bigger objective.
“We will work hard to make our country and region proud by qualifying for the World Cup. We still have to face Nigeria, who are seasoned campaigners in this competition, so it will not be easy,” she said.
The tournament is themed “Stars in the making”.
It will be the second time that Poland has hosted a FIFA tournament, having hosted the men’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019. It will also be the first time that Poland has hosted a FIFA women’s tournament.
