The Zimbabwe national U17 suffered an embarrassing heavy 5-0 defeat to Malawi at the Cosafa U17 Championship at the Stade St Francois Xavier stadium in Port Louis Mauritius. 

Zimbabwe finished the match with nine players after Tinotendaishe Benza and Kuzivakwashe Gwasira could not continue due to injury. 

Frank Titani opened the scoring after 16 minutes, Chinsinsi Maonga took his tally for the tournament to three goals with a brace, while there were also second-half strikes for Chikondi Mbeta and Patrick Mwaungulu.

Malawi picked up the bronze medal in 2016, but will have genuine hopes of doing better in this year’s competition.

This was Zimbabwe’s second defeat at the championship after losing 1-0 to hosts Mauritius in the opening match on Saturday.

Zimbabwe will now seek to bow out of the championship with a win when they play their last group match against Botswana on Wednesday. 

In the other group A game, Mauritius sealed their semifinal place with a 2-1 win over Botswana, despite having to come from behind as Godfrey Tauyatswala gave the Young Zebras the lead in the first half.

But goals from Adriano Chiu Chung Fat and Jean Aristide turned things around for the islanders, much to the delight of the hone fans.

So after Monday’s results hosts Mauritius and Malawi have booked their places in the semifinals.

The pair will now face-off on Wednesday for top-spot in the pool, which would mean avoiding a semifinal with likely Group B winners Zambia, who look among the tournament favourites so far.

The two semifinalists from Group B will become clear when that pool is completed on Tuesday.

Leaders Zambia face Mozambique in a game they will expect to win to secure top-spot, while South Africa need to match or better the result of Mozambique against Madagascar to seal their passage into the knockout stages for the second year running.