Kaizer Chiefs scored in injury time to beat Township Rollers of Botswana in their CAF Champions League preliminary first-leg clash.
|||
It was not pretty. But it got the result all right! And now Kaizer Chiefs will do their best to protect “that” goal against a Township Rollers side that is sure to believe they can pull the rug from underneath the feet of their more illustrious opponents.
Amakhosi’s 2-1 Caf Champions League preliminary round, first leg victory courtesy of a Tefu Mashamaite injury-time goal saved the Absa Premiership leaders some blushes in what was arguably their worst performance of the season.
“I’ve never seen our central midfield give the ball away as much as we did,” coach Stuart Baxter lamented after the match played at the FNB Stadium on Saturday night. “We gave them so much opportunity to counter (attack) us, it’s a miracle that they did not score. But I can’t envisage us giving the ball away so badly in the second leg.”
Yet he will do well to ensure his team are much more jealous in protecting the ball, Rollers showing themselves to be a very useful side in possession and going forward.
“We’ll gladly take the goal to Botswana and we will defend it fiercely.”
And they should given that Rollers now need only beat them 1-0 to progress to the first round via the away goal rule. “We always say it takes just one second to score. And I am happy we did so to win this match.”
Chiefs will thus need to be alert for the entire match when the two sides meet in Gaborone in two weeks making sure there’s no lapse of concentration for a second.
After all Rollers, who clearly came here in awe of their opponents, have now got the impression Chiefs are not as great a side as they thought them to be.
“We’ll be ready for Chiefs when they come to Gaborone,” said coach Madinda Ndlovu at the post-match conference “The boys are very sorry that they could not at least get a draw, but there’s smiles on their faces and a belief that they can make it.
“While my boys gave Chiefs too much respect in the first few minutes, we should have gone into the break at 1-1 but we missed a sitter. In the second half we played well and that’s why we got the equaliser.
“But then we lacked concentration in the last five minutes and that’s why we conceded from a set piece.”
Valuable lessons picked up from the first leg by both sides then to make for a fascinating second clash that promises to be tactically intense as Chiefs will strive to protect their lead while hoping to get that crucial away goal and Rollers go out for a win on home soil.
While the showing by Chiefs can well be termed an episode in the club’s fascinating 2014/15 drama best forgotten, Rollers will rewind the tape and watch it with some pride – the Botswana champions having managed to get behind the Chiefs rearguard on so many occasions they should have scored more than the one goal by Segolame Boy.
They were swift on the counter-attack as Chiefs looked out-of-sorts in midfield and their inter-passing impressed. In front of their home crowd in Gaborone they are sure to be even much sprightly and much more confident.
Chiefs will want Matthew Rusike to be much more clinical and quicker in his decision-making in the box than he was here.
Though he scored the opener on six minutes, the Zimbawean striker was good for a hat-trick on the night but fluffed a couple of good chances.
Not that Baxter was complaining.
After all, his team got the victory in the end. - The Star
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1ECnPAh
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire