AfricaPress-Tanzania: AZAM remain adamant they will win the Premier League championship this season despite suffering first loss to Mtibwa in the weekend kicks off.
The league leaders saw their seven game unbeaten run dealt a blow following their 1-0 loss to Mtibwa Sugar at Jamhuri Stadium in Morogoro on Monday.
It was their first loss after their 630-minute unbeaten run. It was Jafary Kibaya, who netted the winner for his team in the 62nd minute and the victory was their third win of the season.
They are now placed 10th on the table with 11 points from eight-game outings. History books have therefore written Mtibwa Sugar as the team to have ruined Azam’s 100 per cent run in the 2020/21 Mainland Premier League season, hence only one team now Young Africans are yet to taste the sour part of the championship.
Speaking in a telephone conversation yesterday, Azam’s Information Officer, Thabit Zakaria reiterated that they still have the ability to win the title even though they lost on the day.
“Indeed, we lost but we are still commanding the league table as such, our motive to claim it this season remains unchanged. “It is normal in football that you can win games back to back but a time usually comes when you fail to shine like what happened to us. The day was simply not ours as we played well throughout only that we missed netting goals,” he said.
He added that they hit the post twice and in the process missed another two clear chances of which in other past league games they were able to turn such similar opportunities into goals.
“Even the goal we conceded was not that lethal for us to allow but I just want to congratulate the scorer for his personal effort as he sought a good angle before unleashing the strike. “We both had a perfect match but time for us to surrender vital three points came therefore, we should stay positive in our upcoming fixtures,” he narrated.
He also disclosed that striker Obrey Chirwa missed the game due to injury he sustained in their past game against Ihefu FC, while midfielder Salum Abubakar had three consecutive yellow cards which made him not legible for the game.
His counterpart for Mtibwa Sugar, Thobias Kifaru was full of praise of his team saying there was no way Azam could have continued with their massive league record over them.
“Even our coach is completely satisfied with the performance displayed by the team and now, our focus is on the next match against Kagera Sugar where we also want to produce tangible results,” he insisted.
The victory was second in a row for the team’s caretaker coach Vincent Barnabas who took over coaching responsibilities from Zuberi Katwila as the latter enjoys new life at debutants Ihefu FC.
