Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA Sports Club’s opponents, FC Platinum of Zimbabwe have jetted in Dar es Salaam for their midweek return leg tie of Confederation of African Football Champions League at Mkapa Stadium.
The three-time-in-a-row Zimbabwean champions will face a litmus test from the Mainland Champions, who have vowed to leave no stone unturned to secure a victory before their home ground supporters on Wednesday.
FC Platinum carry a 1-0 lead advantage after Perfect Chikwende, who was among those in the entourage, scored the vital goal at the National Sports Stadium on 23 December in Harare capital.
The goal had bothered a lot Simba’s Belgium coach, Sven Vandenbroeck who had since then been working on a ‘game plan’ that will demolish the visitors and proceed into the next level.
For Simba, a 2-0 win will be enough for them to make their dreams come true as their opponents just need a goalless draw for things to work on their side.
Norman Mapeza’s lads will, however, not have it easy against Simba who are more experienced in African club competitions and are said to have been working tirelessly to ensure that they overturn the one-goal deficit.
“We are in a good position to win the second leg because our opponents are not a threat,” “We did not lose our first away match because of their prowess, but we lost because of our mistakes,” Vandenbroeck was quoted as saying by the media.
“They managed to score and now we have to be careful when we meet in the return leg.”
The 21-time champions came into the match hoping to get at least a draw and stand a better chance of winning the second leg at home having qualified for the second round after a 1-0 aggregate win over Plateau United of Nigeria.
On the other hand, Platinum made it to the next 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.
Simba, who had stepped up into training on Saturday after a New Year’s break, recently demolished Ihefu FC 4-0 in the Mainland Premier League, signaling to the visitors that beating will be theirs.
Last season, Simba failed to make it past the preliminary stage after losing on the away goal rule to UD Songo of Mozambique.
The two sides had battled to a 0-0 draw in Mozambique and in the return leg played in Dar es Salaam, it ended 1-1 meaning Songo advanced on the away goal rule.
Whereas in the 2018/19 season they managed to reach the quarter-finals, it was in 1974 when Simba managed to get into the semi-finals but were knocked out by Egyptian side Ghazl El Mahalla.
