Analysis: How Malawi pulled off the shock of WAFCON 2026 on debut against Nigeria
Malawi are more than just the Chawinga sisters and proved it with a complete team performance against the Super Falcons.
Malawi recorded an unforgettable 3-2 win on their WAFCON debut against 10-time champions Nigeria, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s history.
To say that Malawi’s arrival at WAFCON was long overdue would be an understatement. Despite being blessed with two of the best players in the world in sisters Tabitha and Temwa Chawinga, the Scorchers never managed to earn a place on the continent’s biggest stage prior to this year.
For the most part, that was due to a lack of trying. The Football Association of Malawi withdrew the team from qualifying for the 2024 WAFCON (played in 2025), blaming financial constraints. They similarly did not enter the team for tournaments between 2014 and 2018.
On the odd occasion that the Scorchers tried to make a fist of qualifying, they found themselves short of quality in the rest of their squad. They narrowly lost out to Zambia in the first round of qualifying in 2022, falling short on aggregate after having to make do without the Chawinga sisters, who were not released from their club contracts in China.
The crop of fresh Malawian talent coming through its domestic ranks has proven itself more than capable of supporting their star strike duo. This was never more evident than when teenager Faith Chinzimu – a product of the Ascent Academy in Malawi – scored the goals that sealed the Scorchers’ spot at this WAFCON, and certainly proved extremely important in their dream debut.
