Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA Head Coach Pablo Franco has described a barren draw with their traditional rivals Young Africans as a fair results to both teams and praised his players’ commitment.
The two sides settled the scores at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam over the weekend as the teams fought to a goal-less draw at the end of the tense 90 minutes.
The outcome was rather en- couraging for Yanga as it keeps leading the 16-team Premier League with 20 points from eight matches while Simba re- mained on the second slot with 18 points.
However, at a post-match briefing, the Spanish coach said it was a great match with qual- ity players from both sides hence one point was a pretty fair re- sult.
“I am very proud of my team and players. We approached this game with the pressure of being below them and without our two key players who are still injured.
“However, despite that, we played good football and we had some moments to score goals especially in the second half.
I saw a more ambitious team in us than them hence I am very proud of the players,” he said.
Moreover, Franco added that there is still a long way to go and that he hopes to register good results when the two giant teams will meet again in the second round of the unfolding league.
Also, the coach hailed Yanga saying they are a great team too with hardworking players and that their front line is dangerous.
He continued: “What I saw in my team in the opening minutes is what I saw after the end of 90 minutes which defines that we worked as a team by helping each other.”
Commenting on his decision to call on bench playmaker Bernard Morrison for Yusuf Mhilu, Franco said by that time, Morrison had already received a yelow card and he was protesting a lot hence he did not want to fin- ish the game with 10-men.
His counterpart for Yanga Nasreddine Nabi narrated that it was a difficult game as he antici- pated during the pre-match meeing on Friday when he predicted that it would be a 50-50 affair. ”
We did well to deprive Simba many scoring chances and their only best chance to score came in the last minutes of play.
To our side, we also missed a couple of chances including the one from Saido Ntibazonkiza,” he said.
Moreover, the Tunisian coach expressed his belief that this season, Yanga are better- placed to clinch the title and that what they are doing now is to create a very competitive team capable of bringing positive results.
Up next, Simba face JKT Tanzania in the third round of Azam Sports Federation Cup (ASFC) at Benjamin Mkapa venue tomorrow while Yanga will be in action on Wednesday versus Ihefu in the same compe- tition at the same arena.
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