Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA Sports Club’s head coach, Sven Vandenbroeck is optimistic that his side will turn things around to beat their Zimbabwean rivals, FC Platinum at home ground in Dar es Salaam after their 1-0 away defeat in the CAF Champions League.
The Mainland champions will now need a 2-0 win in the second leg to make it to the group stages of the annual competition.
Last season, Simba failed to make it past the preliminary stage after losing on the away goals rule to UD Songo of Mozambique.
The second leg is planned to be played at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam between January 5 and 6 and already the club’s information officer, Haji Manara, who has returned from his long spell of honeymoon, has bragged of winning the premier league title, urging the club fans to show up in big number.
The Belgian tactician was unhappy with the outcome of their second round firstleg meeting with the Platinum in Harare but has been quoted as saying that Simba have chances of eliminating the Zimbabweans and sail through.
“We have chances because we did not lose our away match because of our opponents’ prowess, but we did that because of our mistakes,” “I think we should have a keen focus on our return leg tie and secure a home win with a big margin,” he said.
The away match saw Perfect Chikwende scoring the only goal at the National Sports Stadium in Harare to give the Platinum Miners a slight advantage ahead of the second leg set for January 6 in Dar es Salaam.
The Belgian tactician, who was missing his key striker and captain John Bocco through illness, has now said his team did not deserve to lose in the fixture because they dominated the game, especially in the first half but could not use their chances.
Simba, who were last night expected to play Majimaji of Songea in the Azam Sports Federation Cup(ASFC), qualified for the first round of the continental club tournament after a 1-0 aggregate win over Plateau United of Nigeria.
On the other hand, Platinum made it to the first round on a 4-1 aggregate win after eliminating Costa De Sol of Mozambique, winning the first leg played in Maputo 2-1 before claiming a 2-0 win in the return leg played in Harare.
