Malawi captain John Banda has called on his teammates to minimise their mistakes when they come up against Ethiopia in a decisive 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixture on Tuesday.

The Flames will face the Walia Ibex at Estadio do Zimpeto in their fifth Group D fixture seeking victory to keep alive their hopes of earning a qualification ticket for the Ivory Coast finals in January. Speaking ahead of the fixture, Banda admitted it will not be business as usual as the Flames will be eliminated if they fail to win.

“The team that is here is ready to do the job. They are a lot of young boys who are promising good things. We should not repeat the things that we did wrong in the past that put us in this position,” Banda said as quoted by the Malawi FA website.

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“We know what is at stake here. Only a win will be good for us to brighten our chances of qualifying. We want to go back to the Afcon. So this is an important match for us but we are not under pressure. Our duty is to play football so we are ready and don’t have to panic. We know some of the players are new but as senior players we have to help them cope.”

Meanwhile, coach Patrick Mabedi said: “We have prepared very well for the match having stayed here for nine days. We are focused on this match which is very important for our campaign.

“We are looking forward to this game. We need to put all our focus on this match and collect maximum points on Tuesday. Ethiopia are a good team. We beat them in the first leg but they have also done well and have good players and we need to be very careful in our approach.”

The Flames are third in the group with three points, six behind second-placed Guinea and nine behind leaders Egypt, who have already qualified for the Afcon. Malawi and fourth-placed Ethiopia are tied on three points.