AfricaPress-Tanzania: SIMBA’S French coach Didier Gomes Da Rosa is confident they will make a good start in the group by beating their hosts, Congolese AS Vita in the CAF Champions’ League group stage on Friday.
He has insisted that his target is to make sure they get a point in the away matches and win their home fixtures.
“We can easily make it from the group if we achieve the targets we have set,”
“We want to at least snatch a point away and then win all our home matches. If we do so, then Simba will easily reach the quarterfinals,” he was quoted as saying by the club official website en-route to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Simba arrived in Addis Ababa safely on Wednesday and will today depart for Congolese capital city of Kinshasa. Simba will be taking part in the group stage of the competition for the third time in history and have been drawn in Group A alongside defending champions Al Ahly from Egypt, Vita Club from Congo, and Al-Merreikh from Sudan.
After playing against AS Vita, they will return home for their second group match against Al Ahly at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on February 23. Simba SC captain John Bocco has been left out of a 27-man squad for the away important match.
Bocco is reported to have been struggling with injury, the reason for Da Rosa to drop him. Another player missing from the squad is new signing Perfect Chikwende, who is not eligible to feature having turned out against the Msimbazi street giants for FC Platinum in the second round of the competition.
Chikwende scored for FC Platinum when they hosted Simba in the first leg clash staged at National Sports Stadium in Harare but Simba returned home to hammer the Platinum Miners 4-0 and advance to the group stage of the competition on a 4-1 aggregate victory.
However, Ghanaian forward Bernard Morrison, who missed the two-legged clash against Platinum due to injury, has been included in the squad.
