AfricaPress-Tanzania: SIMBA SC head coach, French Didier Gomes da Rosa has said that he does not blame his players for a 2-2 Mainland Premier league draw with Azam FC, saying that the league is still long for Simba to have chances of securing points.
Azam came from a 0-1 half time defeat to force Simba into a draw in the second half.
The draw has barred Simba’s efforts to open a sizeable points’ gap with league leaders, Young Africans, who have bagged 44 points from 18 matches while Simba have reached 39 points from 17 matches to remain second in the table.
The sharing of the spoil also leaves Azam in the third place with 33 points from 18 matches.
Didier, who headed Simba into his second match in charge after leading the club to a 2-1 win over Dodoma Jiji said that they created a lot of chances but they did not utilize them fully.
“We had chances to score, but we lost them,” “We also failed to win a penalty, nevertheless, i can not blame my players as we still have chances to go and improve,” he said.
He said that Simba have to stay positive and stay focused on other forthcoming assignments to win points.
“The first half was good for us and we dominated, but our opponents took chances as well to level matters in the second half,” he said.
However, he said that, he will work hard to improve in the finishing line after missing several clear chances.
Statistically, Simba have of a recent enjoyed lions’ share against Azam FC in their five latest league match records. When they met in 2018, Simba won 1-0 and won again 3-1 in February 2019.
They fought to a barren draw when they met again in May in the same year, before Simba winning 1-0 in October. In their March meeting last year, Simba won 3-2.
Meddie Kagere scored his 9th goal in the 27th minute to enable a 1-0 half time lead.
Ten minutes later, the Mainland champions were awarded a penalty that was however, missed by Clatous Chama. On resumption, Azam pressured a lot on Simba’s defence, but they found a tough going.
Idd Selemani ‘Nado’ therefore saw no need of penetrating into Simba’s strong defence and unleashed a powerful shot from 18 yard to see Simba goalie, Aishi Manula napping.
Azam went ahead in the 76th minute through Ayoub Lyanga to score the second goal that disappointed Simba fans. But Luis Miquissone saved the day for Simba to level matters three minutes later from a long powerful range.
