Malawi national football team coach Kalisto Pasuwa has insisted that his side did their best despite suffering a humiliating 5-0 defeat to Egypt in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.

The Flames suffered the heavy defeat on Friday at Cairo International Stadium in Cairo, Egypt, in a Group B third-round qualifying match.

Egypt took control early, with Nasser Maher opening the scoring in the sixth minute before Omar Marmoush doubled the lead four minutes later.

Mohamed Hany extended Egypt’s advantage in the 39th minute with a spectacular long-range effort to send the hosts into half-time with a 3-0 lead.

Trabzonspor forward Mohamed Salah added two more goals in the second half, scoring in the 83rd minute with a header before converting a penalty in stoppage time to complete the 5-0 victory.

Reacting after the match, Pasuwa admitted that Malawi once again started slowly, allowing their opponents to score twice within the opening 10 minutes.

He acknowledged that the team had struggled to correct the problem, which he said had also affected them in their previous match.

“We started slowly and we ended up conceding goals also in less than 10 minutes. This is one thing which we are lacking and failing maybe to rectify because last time again we did the same way,” said Pasuwa.

The coach also pointed to Malawi’s failure to convert their scoring opportunities, saying Egypt were more clinical whenever chances came their way.

According to Pasuwa, most of the goals came from transitions after Malawi lost possession, allowing Egypt to punish their mistakes.

“We were getting scoring chances and we were failing to score, then they got scoring chances and they punished us. Most of the goals were from transitions. We are in possession of the ball, we lose it through mistakes and we are punished,” he said.

Despite the disappointing result, Pasuwa maintained that his players had given their best, although they failed to achieve the outcome they wanted.

“We did our best, but unfortunately maybe we couldn’t get the results that we wanted,” he added.

Pasuwa said the technical panel would need to sit down and address the team’s weaknesses, but admitted that the short recovery period could make preparations difficult, as Malawi are expected to play again in three days.