Match preview: Bullets v Chitipa

September 22, 2024
10:25 am
by Bullets Media

FCB Nyasa Big Bullets will welcome Chitipa United for another TNM Super League assignment at Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Our 18th fixture of this campaign comes 72 hours after we lost 1-0 to Bangwe All Stars at the same venue on Thursday.

The defeat, third in the league this season, left the Malawi champions in a complicated situation regarding defending their title. Bullets are 21 points behind leaders Silver Strikers, who have accumulated 45 points from 19 games.

But, as Kalisto Pasuwa highlighted soon after the midweek defeat, the players need to forge ahead and focus on bouncing back from the disappointing loss against a side placed 15th in the standings, one step from the bottom.

On Sunday, The People’s Team will face another relegation-threatened side, which is eager to keep fighting for survival to remain in the top-flight league and this should be another tough assignment for the 2023 quadruple-winners.

FORM GUIDE

The two teams are struggling for points in the league. The hosts have only managed five wins, losing thrice and drawing nine times, the worst start to the title defence in the history of the club.

Thursday’s defeat saw Bullets recording two losses at Kamuzu Stadium for the first time since 2012 and the first loss against Bangwe in all competitions since the arrival of Ma Stars in the top division of Malawian football.

At this stage last season, we were in position one with 34 points from which we scored 31 goals, conceded eight, won nine games, registered seven draws and lost once.

In this current campaign, we have only scored 19 goals, conceded 11, won five games, lost three and nine draws.

As for the opponents, they are going into this match straight from a 2-0 defeat away to Kamuzu Barracks on Thursday.

Despite finishing fourth last season, the Northern Region side has also struggled to win games as they are 14th in the table with 17 points from 20 games. They have scored 20 goals, conceded 30, lost 11 games, won four and drew five times.

At this stage last season, Chitipa, who are yet to win a match away from home this season, had accumulated 32 points, scored 20 goals and conceded 14.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

The history between these two teams isn’t huge, considering they have had less than 14 meetings.

Chitipa’s last visit to Kamuzu Stadium saw them losing 2-0

In the 2017 season, we beat them 1-0 at their base before they lost 2-0 at Chilomoni Stadium in the reverse fixture.

In the same year, they got relegated and played the entire 2018 campaign in the Northern Region Premier Division League, before their return to the top-flight league the following season, meeting Bullets at Kamuzu Stadium in the first leg. Pasuwa’s men blew away a 2-goal lead to draw 2-2.

In the second round of the 2019 season, The People’s Team travelled to the North intending to reduce the gap against Mighty Mukuru Wanderers in the title race, having dropped important points in the first round.

Bullets ran riot hammering the hosts 3-0 at Karonga Stadium, courtesy of goals from Chiukepo Msowoya, Chimwemwe Idana and Hassan Kajoke to move to two points within the log leaders, who had lost 2-3 at home to Moyale Barracks.

In the 2020/21 season, we registered a double over Chitipa, winning 2-0 in the first round in Karonga before recording the same margin at Kamuzu in the reverse fixture.

There was no meeting between the two teams in the 2022 season as Chitipa got relegated to the second tier.

Making a return last campaign, Chitipa won the first-round game 1-0 at their base, before losing 2-0 to Bullets in the final fixture.

This term Pasuwa’s men hammered their opponents 3-0 in the first round in April at Karonga Stadium.

The two teams have met twice in cup competitions, with Bullets winning both encounters.

In 2018, we met in the FISD Challenge Cup quarterfinals at Kamuzu Stadium, we triumphed 5-0 to progress to the semis.

We met again in the quarterfinals of the 2022 FDH Bank Cup at Rumphi Stadium where Babatunde Adepoju and Anthony Mfune guided Pasuwa’s side to a 2-0 victory to set up a semifinal showdown with Wanderers and went on to win 4-0 to progress to the final where we defeated Bullets Reserves 3-1 to win the competition for the first time.

TEAM NEWS

Precious Sambani, who was stretchered off during our last match against Bangwe, will have to pass a late fitness test to be considered for selection against Chitipa on Sunday. Chrispin Mapemba is also a doubt for this match.

The rest of the players, who were picked for our last match at home, are available for selection.

WHAT PASUWA SAID AHEAD OF THE MATCH

“It’s becoming worrisome for us. This is a team which was doing well last season and all of a sudden, we have just gone down where results are not coming. This is a concern for me, the players and the supporters plus everyone associated with the club. But this is what football is all about, and I have been talking about it to say if you are a champion, you need to go the extra mile to prepare yourself for the opponents.

“If anyone is coming for you, you have to be ready for any challenge. Sunday’s game is one of those games that we need to be positive. We had some areas where we ended up making some mistakes in the dying minutes of the game [against Bangwe], unnecessary and costly mistakes like we were amateurs, but it’s how you contain pressure when you are in such a situation.

“I trust the boys. I have got trust in them in whatever they are doing. We hope for the best. We need to be positive in whatever we are doing and I am pretty sure that they will come out well for us to start collecting points.

“You see, to some of these mistakes, these are areas we have been talking about. If you could visit us in the dressing room at half-time, we always talk about this and we always concede similar goals. I think it has to do with complacency in terms of what we do in our approach. We mustn’t even underrate any team. You can only talk about a result after the final whistle.

“The goal we conceded against Bangwe is the same one we conceded against Silver Strikers [to lose 1-0 in the first round] and the same goal we have been conceding away from home where we press and are caught on the counter.

“We have been talking about it and I am very sure that the problem will come to an end. We are not giving up; we are training and we are positive that we will fix this. It’s our responsibility as coaches to bring the boys back to the winning ways, giving them the much-needed support to make them start believing in themselves again and tell them that they belong to a winning side.

“One thing that I have seen in our boys if you see at times [is that] if they are frustrated with officiating, they are completely down and at the end of the day, they make so many mistakes where they will end up getting unnecessary cards because of frustrations, but that’s how football is all about. You can’t be winning every time, you need to be ready for anything.

“We have been doing our research on why we have been losing to these bottom three teams. Recently, we lost to [second-tier side] Blue Eagles in the final of the FDH Bank Cup. We need our mojo back. To have that Bullets spirit heart back to us so we start winning again.”

KICK-OFF TIME AND HOW TO WATCH SUNDAY’S MATCH

The game is scheduled for 14h30 and you can catch all the action live on MBC TV. It will also be streamed on FIFA+. You can also catch all the match updates on our Facebook and X (Twitter) channels.