Malawian Chawinga’s brace earns Inter Milan derby bragging rights
Malawian striker Tabitha Chawinga’s brace helped Inter Milan to a 4-1 win over AC Milan in a Serie A Femminile women’s league match on Saturday.
Winning the five-goal thriller helped Inter claim Milan bragging rights, thanks to Malawi’s Scorchers captain.
Tabitha Chawinga was joined on the scoresheet by Santi and Karchouni to move up to fourth place.
Santi scored barely two minutes into the game after taking advantage of Giuliani’s error.
HOW TABITHA CHAWINGA STOLE MILAN DERBY SHOW
It was now the turn of Tabitha Chawinga to double the advantage in the 15th minute. AC Milan pulled one back through Piemonte’s strike in the 32nd minute.
Inter led 2-1 at break and quickly increased the lead in the second half. Karchouni made it 3-1 with a powerful free-kick goal seven minutes after the restart.
AC Milan reacted with a series of raids on Inter’s goal. AC Milan earned a penalty following Fördős’ foul on Asllani.
However, Inter goalkeeper Francesca Durante kept out Asllani’s spot-kick. That miss proved further decisive, as Tabitha Chawinga killed off the game as a contest.
The Malawian netted her second and Inter’s fourth goal in the 74th minute.
WHAT THE BRACE MEANS FOR THE MALAWIAN IN THE GOLDEN BOOT RACE
The 26-year-old Tabitha has now scored 12 league goals for Inter. The dreadlocked forward leads the league’s Golden Boot Award race.
She is three goals ahead of her teammate Elisa Polli. Tabitha is also second on the list of most assist providers.
The Malawian has registered five assists, one behind Julia Grosso of Juventus. Tabitha is proving to be a big catch for Inter.
Inter have 29 points from 15 games, four points ahead of their city rivals. Roma lead the 10-member league with 36 points from 14 games.
Inter also have the league’s best attack after scoring 37 goals. It is all thanks to Tabitha, who moved to Italy last year on loan from Chinese side, Wuhan Jiangda.
Her younger sister Temwa Chawinga is still on the books of the Chinese Women’s League Champions.
Tabitha launched her career at DD Sunshine FC in Lilongwe, where Temwa followed suit.
Tabitha eventually moved to the third-tier Swedish league side, Krokom/Dvarsatts IF in 2014. She became the first Malawian woman footballer to sign for a European team.
Tabitha scored 39 goals in 14 games despite missing five games as she had not yet turned 18 years.
The Malawian star then signed for second-tier Kvarnsveden. Tabitha helped Damallsvenskan earn a promotion after scoring 43 goals.
Tabitha settled for 15 goals as Kvarnsveden finished in ninth position in the 2016 season.
The following year, Tabitha bagged 25 goals to attract the attention of Chinese team Jiangsu Suning in the 2017-18 season.
Temwa followed her elder sister to China, where she signed for Wuhan. Tabitha then followed Temwa to Wuhan before securing the loan to Italy.
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