FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Women will return to competitive action when they welcome Ascent Academy in the FAM Women’s National Championship semi-finals at Mpira Stadium on Saturday.
It will be an early kick-off at 11h00 as the venue will also host the second semi-final tie between Ntopwa and DD Sunshine at 14h30.
Following a tremendous two week-run of the group stage unbeaten, Bullets Women are halfway through to the final, having finished top of the log table with 12 points and scoring 13 goals in the group phase.
The journey to the semis
It was a fun ride for our women who started the national championship campaign with a 2-0 victory over Destiny Academy, in which the current top scorer Vanessa Chikupila and Tendai Sani starred at the Mpira Stadium.
Maggie Chombo’s ladies then claimed a 2-1 victory against former champions, DD Sunshine away at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe. We had Chikupila and Fauzah Mohammad to thank for our hard-earned goals.
A 4-0 triumph followed against CY Sisters in Chiwembe where Chikupila and Sani contributed two goals each.
Our last tie in the group stage was a 7-1 thrashing of Topik Sisters in which the leading scorer netted six goals at Mzuzu Stadium where Zainab Kapanda contributed the other goal.
Saturday’s opponents came second in Group B with eight points and scored the same number of goals as our women’s team, 13.
Our Southern Region co-representatives in the last four, Ntopwa, finished top of their group with 10 points and they scored nine goals.
Chikupila eyes Golden Boot
The 27-year-old Chikupila was the centre of attention in this campaign as she completed the group stages with ten goals, seconded by Rose Kabzere of Ascent Academy, who scored eight goals.
Our attacker eyes the Golden Boot having finished second on the top goal scorers’ chart in the Regional Championship with 43 goals, eight behind her teammate Mary Chavinda, whose participation in the national phase has been limited due to an injury.
About last season
As Blantyre Zero, before the team was acquired by Nyasa Big Bullets, Chombo and her side met Saturday’s opponents in the semi-finals of the national championship to win the tie 6-5 on post-match penalties following a 0-0 draw and booked a place in the 2022 final.
It will surely be an unpredictable match considering that last year both teams finished the Group Stages on top of their respective groups, Bullets with seven points, seconded by Skippers which had a one-point difference with us.
As for the Lilongwe visitors, they topped their table with nine points, followed by finalists DD Sunshine, who had seven points, before losing the final 3-1 to Bullets Women, who lifted the trophy for the first time and are looking to defend it this campaign.
We wish our women all the best as they push closer to their second national silverware.
