Dedza, Karonga secure Airtel Top 8 place as Civo, Moyale miss

Dedza Dynamos Salima Sugar Football Club and Karonga United have on Sunday booked their places in the 2022 Airtel Top 8 Cup after wrapping up their first round of the tnm Super League with victories.

The rookies, Dedza Dynamos who received a sponsorship boost from Salima Sugar earlier this week, came from behind to haunt Civil Service United in front of the crowd at Dedza Stadium.

With aims of securing their slots in the top 8 both teams looked ambitious from the word go but it was Civil who broke the deadlock first through Christopher Kumwembe. He came off the bench replacing Arnold masamba to give the Servants hopes of playing in this year’s Airtel Top 8 Cup.

However, Dedza Dynamos upped their game in the second half and Promise Kamwendo equalised with a belter to buy back their hopes of top 8 before he netted the winner moments later. It was his fifth goal of the season.

With the win, Dedza Dynamos is probably the most improved team, have finished the first round on position 7 with 22 points while Civil have ended on number 10 with 17 points.

In the post match interviews, Dedza Dynamos head coach Dan Dzimkambani said it was a difficult game and he thanked his lads for the spirited-performance.

“Dedza Dynamos is a new team in TNM Super League and has finished on position seven which is a great achievement for us. We will try to fix challenges which the team met in the first round so that we should start second round on high noted,” said Dzinkambani.

Civil coach Oscar Kaunda said his team failed to play its system because Dedza were using aerial balls but he accepted the result.

In Karonga, Ramadan Mtafu scored from the 12 yards against Ekwendeni Hammers to grantee Karonga United a place in the top 8.

Ingwina started the season on a slow note and they went to sack their manager, Zimbabwean Lazarus Magaya and roped in Christopher Nyambose who took the team back to winning ways.

Karonga United have finished on number 8 with 20 points.

Moyale Barracks is another team that has missed a slot in the Airtel Top after finishing the first round on number 9 with 17 points. On Sunday afternoon, they banged Rumphi United by 5 goals to one.

The set for Airtel 8 is complete. Nyasa Big Bullets, Silver Strikers, Mighty Wanderers, Mafco and Karonga United have retained their slots in the Top 8 Cup while TN Stars, Civil Service and Moyale Barracks are the teams that failed to stand firm in their places.

In this year’s tournament, three teams have joined in and they are Dedza Dynamos, Blue Eagles and Kamuzu Barracks.

Here is the full list:
Nyasa Big Bullets FC
Blue Eagles FC
Mighty Mukuru Wanderers FC
Silver Strikers FC
Kamuzu Barracks FC
Mafco FC
Dedza Dynamos Salima FC
Karonga United FC

Last year, the draw procedure was like this, the Number one team used to face the 8th placed team, 2nd faced 7th, 3rd faced 6th, 4th faced 5th.

If it is going to stand, this means Nyasa Big Bullets will take on Karonga United, Blue Eagles take on Dedza Dynamos, Mighty Wanderers face Mafco FC and Silver Strikers will take on Kamuzu Barracks.

The winner of the Airtel Top 8 walks away with a trophy and a sum of K17.5 million.

Nyasa Big Bullets are the defending champions as they beat Silver Strikers on penalties to win the Cup in December last year at Kamuzu Stadium.