Black week for national teams

The team, with a number of seasoned Premiership players, was expected to fully utilise home advantage, but meekly surrendered towards the end, as the two-legged tie turned on its head at home.

The return leg on Tuesday was always going to be a mammoth task, and it proved just that, although the Young Zebras managed to hold the Malawians to a 1-1 draw.  However, the result was only sufficient to knock them out of the Olympic Games qualifiers, at the first hurdle. While the Young Zebras were being bundled out of the Olympic qualifiers in Blantyre, thousands of miles away, in Mauritania, the Zebras were receiving a routine 2-1 beating.