After their goalless draw in the first leg of their second preliminary round CAF Confederation Cup tie, Kaizer Chiefs coach Khalil Ben Youssef has said they succeeded with their game plan in the first leg against Simba, but were unlucky not to score.
The match ended goalless in the DRC on Saturday afternoon, and now the second leg will be key for Chiefs as they look to book their spot in the group stages.
Ben Youssef said that the pitch made things difficult for both sides, but they had a couple of good chances to win the game.
“You see the situation of the game, the pitch and the competitor,” the coach told the club’s media department.
“We prepare our players before about the situation. They know it will be a tough game.
“Really, in this kind of pitch, you can’t play. So for that, we was only playing long ball like them, because it’s difficult to manage with this kind of pitch. I think the plan of the game. It was how we can manage the first 45 minutes, first we don’t concede, then we know that the opponent team, they will take a lot of risk. They will try to press higher. They will leave us a lot of space. Then we will introduce our [Mduduzi] Shabalala, Ashley [Du Preez] and [Wandile] Duba to give us the speed and the solution in the deep.
“And I think the first half, we got two opportunities to score. We was unlucky. One of them crossbar of [Khanyisa] Mayo, and the second in the 88th minute, I think a good combination between Shabalala, [Mfundo] Vilakazi and then Shabalala give for Ashley. He was unlucky. Even it was an empty goal, he was unlucky. The ball was out. But the plan of the game, I think we succeeded in the plan of the game, how we managed the first 45 minutes, and we know that in the second half we will find a lot of space.
“And we got two opportunities in second half to score, but we was unlucky (not) to score. Now it’s finished, the first leg, first game, we still have another game. Also, I think it will be tough for us. It will be difficult, the Simba team is a good team. They show us a lot of quality today. It’s a physical team, is not tactical or technical team. A lot of physique.
“We have also the Siwelele game on Wednesday. We have to prepare it, and we’ll have time to analyse again, this game, and to find to prepare our team for the next game. Our target is geared to be first in the group stage, then to manage game per game, and we try to do our best to make our fans happy about the situation.”