Mapeza places destiny in God

Sports Reporter
NORMAN Mapeza has placed FC Platinum’s destiny in the hands of God saying his team needs divine intervention to overturn a first leg mauling at the hands of Young Africans of Tanzania and remain in the CAF Confederation Cup at Mandava tomorrow.

Mapeza has had a rough ride to his start to the 2015 football season after his men were humiliated 1-5 by Yanga in Tanzania, despite having held their opponents to a 2-1 lead at the interval, as they collapsed in the second half.

The young coach was a huge hit at FC Platinum last year when he took over from Lloyd Mutasa and led them to success in the Chibuku Super Cup after beating Harare City at Mandava in the final.

But the New Year has brought challenges and Mapeza finds himself under pressure after the battering in Tanzania and a narrow 0-1 loss at the hands of CAPS United in a league match in Harare in their last game.

They needed a late Donald Ngoma goal to squeeze a point from a 2-2 draw against Dongo Sawmill in their first league game at Mandava. Now, Mapeza says their destiny is in God’s hands.

“We know what we need to do, but we are not putting pressure on ourselves. We are just going there to play our normal game,” he said.

“We are going to put maximum concentration on the match and see what happens at the end of the 90 minutes. It’s only God who knows our destiny.”

“We will put maximum effort to get a result we want.” Yanga, who are Tanzania’s remaining representatives in the continental club competitions, are expected to fly to Zimbabwe on a chartered government plane. They will bring 20 players and 10 officials. Yanga will be without midfielder Andrey Coutinho and strikers Kpah Sherman and Jeryson Tegete, who have been declared unfit for the big game. Head coach Hans van der Pluijm says they are coming for a win.

“We’re going to work hard and try to get an early goal and make it easier for us. The aim is to win,” he told the Daily News of Tanzania. Yanga skipper Nadir Haroub issued a warning call to his teammates not to underestimate their opponents in the wake of first leg’s massive win.

“Platinum are a good team and we should not be carried away with the first leg win, we must go there and put in a good performance,” he said.