{"id":335027,"date":"2017-07-10T06:29:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T06:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=335027"},"modified":"2017-07-10T06:29:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T06:29:44","slug":"zimbabwe-beat-zambia-in-the-final-to-lift-2017-cosafa-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=335027","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe beat Zambia in the final to lift 2017 Cosafa Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zimbabwe overpowered their northern neighbours Zambia 3-1 to win the 2017 Cosafa Castle Cup on Sunday and take a record fifth title.<\/p>\n

Knox Mutizwa, Talent Chawapiwa and Ocean Mushure all scored in a convincing victory for the Warriors, who took the trophy despite a rigorous schedule that saw them having to play six matches inside a fortnight.<\/p>\n

They shrugged off the fatigue to get the better of Zambia, who had only come into the tournament halfway through and were playing only their third game.<\/p>\n

A slip by Zambian goalkeeper Allan Chibwe offered Zimbabwe the opening goal after 18 minutes as Mutizwa managed to out-jump him and score, the ball fortuitously coming off his shoulder.<\/p>\n

There were several other good chances – two from close-in free kicks – for Zimbabwe to extend their lead but Zambia levelled some six minutes before half-time with the first touch from substitute Lubinda Mundia.<\/p>\n

He had just come on after Mike Katiba was forced off after a clash of heads and climbed between the Zimbabwe central defenders to head home from a corner.<\/p>\n

After the break Zimbabwe had been expected to fade because of their tough programme but proved the stronger of the two teams.<\/p>\n

Chawapiwa – named man-of-the-match – made all the difference with his runs on the right wing and scored in the 56th minute to restore Zimbabwe’s lead.<\/p>\n

\"Talent
Talent Chawapiwa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Muitwa’s initial effort came back off the upright and Chawapiwa reacted quickly to fire home a powerful shot from inside the penalty area.<\/p>\n

He then set up Mushure for the third, pulling back his pass after drawing the Zambian defenders and allowing the veteran left-back to hit home in the 67th minute.<\/p>\n

It proved an early final nail for Zambia who had little to offer in return despite coach Wedson Nyirenda making quick changes to freshen up his side.<\/p>\n

Success for Zimbabwe continued the unbeaten record of veteran coach Sunday Chidzambwa in the tournament.<\/p>\n

He has won it three times now after previous success in 2003 and 2009 and is still yet to lose a match with 13 wins and two draws in 15 games in charge over three different editions.<\/p>\n

Mutizwa was named player of the tournament while Zimbabwe captain Ovidy Kararu won the golden boot for his six goal contribution.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zimbabwe overpowered their northern neighbours Zambia 3-1 to win the 2017 Cosafa Castle Cup on Sunday and take a record fifth title. Knox Mutizwa, Talent Chawapiwa and Ocean Mushure all scored in a convincing victory for the Warriors, who took the trophy despite a rigorous schedule that saw them having to play six matches inside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[9058,9059,563],"class_list":["post-335027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-cosafa-cup","tag-talent-chawapiwa","tag-zimbabwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}