Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE 24-men Simba brigade is ready for a fierce CAF Champions League battle against hosts Jwaneng Galaxy at the National Stadium in Botswana today.
This will be the first leg match of the first round of the competition whose reverse tie is pegged on October 24th at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
The winner of the twolegged showdown will claim a ticket to play in the tournament’s group stage, hence today’s match forces Simba to play with lungs out not to miss that opportunity.
This is however the first time for the country’s envoys in the Champions League to play one game before stepping into the group stage.
Though on paper the match seems a walkover for Simba, the team’s Head Coach Didier Gomes repeatedly urged his players not to underrate their opponents and play with clever and discipline throughout the normal period of the game.
He has challenged his players to be much better than the way they were last season while indicating that his side’s number one priority this season is to reach in the semifinals.
He then conceded that he had a chance to watch a game of their opponents and he described them as solid, aggressive and very good in aerial balls a thing he said he has alerted his players to be watchful.
To Simba fans, Gomes said they will do whatever it takes to get the much demanded victory after a disappointing start of the season when they lost to Young Africans and a scoreless draw versus Biashara United in their first match of the campaign. Last season, Simba failed short to reach in the Champions League semis as their trip ended in the quarter finals after succumbing to a 4-3 aggregate loss to Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa.
Simba lost 4-0 in the first leg match in South Africa before stamping a convincing 3-0 win during the return leg at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam but the outcome was too little to make them sail into the last four.
On the other hand, founded in 2014, Jwaneng Galaxy are making their debut in the Champions League as such, they go into the game as underdogs to Simba hence the final 90 minutes will decide which team will proceed to the best 16 category.
In 2018, they competed in the CAF Confederation Cup but were eliminated in the first round after losing 1-0 twice in the two legged encounter versus CD Costa as such, they still have a lot to learn in CAF interclub events.
