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Harare Bureau
DYNAMOS captain Murape Murape insists the Harare giants are still in with a chance in this year’s Champions League competition despite spurning a big opportunity at home when they were held by Democratic Republic of Congo side AS Vita at the weekend. The reigning Zimbabwe champions were left facing an early exit from the competition again this year after they were forced to a goalless draw by the Congolese side in the first leg of the first round tie at the National Sports Stadium on Saturday.
Murape yesterday acknowledged the result left them in precarious situation as they now need to move mountains to come back home with a positive result from the return leg in the DRC this weekend.
Dynamos have failed to qualify for the mini-league stage since 2010 and their poor show has re-ignited voices of discontent in the DeMbare family.
“I know many people were not happy with the result and even some of our supporters turned their backs on the players when they wanted to acknowledge them at the end of the game. But you can only rule us out in your own judgement at this point.
“We are all disappointed and dejected but we will not keep our heads down because we believe it’s not over yet. The game is still on but we would need to work on our confidence and self belief as we go to the DRC. It has to be in us that we can do it.
“Maybe we need to draw inspiration from the fighting spirit of the Dynamos of old. History shows that Dynamos is a team of fighters. Those who played before us have been in such difficult situations and they would come out with the desired result.
“Of course our away record for the past four or so years is not so good but sometimes you work harder when pushed into the corner. It was a setback but the good thing is that we are all eager to rise and to correct our mistakes,” said Murape.
DeMbare will need at least a scoring draw in the second leg if they hope to progress to the second round of the tournament. But they will always look back at their mistakes after failing the home supporters with their uninspiring show.
On a day when their likely second round opponents Kaizer Chiefs were winning 4-0 against Liga Muculmana of Mozambique, many of the club’s supporters were dejected as the draw was a big setback which left their team with one leg out of the tournament.
AS Vita, who progressed to this round following a fighting 4-3 win over Nigerian giants Kano Pillars, knew exactly what they wanted when coming to Harare and should have left with great deal of satisfaction.
“Probably we gave these guys the respect they didn’t deserve and you could see they were comfortable with the ball, something that we should not have allowed.
“Our plan was to get some goals at home but things did not work out. Probably we could not rise to the right level but we will do our homework and try to correct our mistakes before the second leg. That game will be a do or die for us,” said Murape.
Dynamos beat Mochudi Centre Chiefs of Botswana 4-1 in the preliminary round. Dynamos coach Callisto Pasuwa retained the bulk of the players from the team that played the preliminary round with Ocean Mushure coming in to replace Augustine Mbara.
Washington Pakamisa started as a lone striker again with Simba Sithole joining him in the second half but the goals were elusive. DeMbare have always played with one striker since the beginning of the campaign and this tactic has not been so effective and they would need to revise their approach in the return leg.
Online Reporter