Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA continue to tune themselves up ahead of their CAF Champions League first leg’s away match against Jwaneng Galaxy of Botswana in Gaborone October 15th -17th.
The winner of the two legged match will qualify to play in the group stage of the Champions League.
Though not much is known about their opponents, Simba have been cautioned not to underrate them but rather take the game seriously and aim to generate positive results in both fixtures.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the team’s manager Patrick Rweyemamu said despite contributing many players to their respective national teams, they have seen it useful to progress with training sessions.
“Our players who have gone to play for their national teams are training hard there in order to help them in getting good results as such, the other group in the squad is not just relaxing either,” he said.
He added that they have picked some players from the club’s junior side (Under-20) to make the training programs complete and competitive enough just like the way they do when the squad is full.
However, few days ago, the club’s Assistant Coach Selemani Matola said the two Premier League matches they played have helped them a lot prior to the CAF Champions League mission.
“These two matches against Biashara United and Dodoma Jiji have helped us a lot in preparing for our next game in the champions league of which we will have ample time to do thorough drills before the first leg encounter.
“I believe we will have good performance in CAF CL and our team is still catching up as some of the players have just joined while others have left as such, soon, we will get back to our normal system of play,” said Matola.
Simba will now play six back to back Premier League matches at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium where they need to do their cards well to claim vital three points in all of them.
Their next league tie will be on October 20th versus Polisi Tanzania and thereafter, they will host Coastal Union, Namungo, Ruvu Shooting, Geita Gold and a traditional derby clash against Young Africans on December 11th.
