dyton mupawaenda
Don Makanyanga-Sports Reporter
Ngezi Platinum Stars coach Takesure Chiragwi remains optimistic of progressing to the first round of the Africa Champi-ons League when they take on AS Maniema of DRC in the return leg on Saturday.
The two sides played to a goalless draw in the first leg in Zambia last Saturday.
Despite his being held to a stalemate at home in the first leg, Ngezi Platinum Stars coach, Chiragwi is optimistic of his charges proceeding to the next round as he believes that the first leg gave the Zimbabwe representatives an insight into their opponent’s type of play.
“Our first match gave us insight into our opponents, we go into the return leg knowing their strengths and weaknesses hence it is going to be easy for us to plot their downfall. We need to work on our game plan.
“We need to take the positives from our last match so that we correct the mistakes we made and go into the return leg knowing exactly what we should do,” said Chiragwi.
After playing to a more balanced first-half, Ngezi Platinum Stars came back from the half time a better side dominated the visitors only to be let down by their strike force.
The young gaffer believes if his charges are clinical in front of goal and turn the missed opportunities in the leg into goals, they stand a chance of progressing to the next round of the champions league.
“We need to work on our conversion rate and make sure that execution is correct and we need to make the correct deci-sion at the right time when we are attacking.
“We now know what we are supposed to do and what is important is the game plan during the week before we travel to DRC and remain very confident that we can go there and come up with a positive result.
“With the way we played in the second-half I think we stand a better chance to progress to the next round of the com-petition,” said Chiragwi.
The Ngezi Platinum Stars coach believes that the goalless draw the two teams played will give his charges an advantage going into the return leg.
“It is very important that we kept a clean sheet, when you play these games what is important is for you not to concede goals, we go there on the same page though I feel we could have taken a lead,” he said.
With dirty tactics being an order of the day in African football, Chiragwi has urged his charges to remain focused on the job at hand and achieve their set target.
Football in Africa when you travel it is like you are going to a war.
“You do not expect everything to be rolled on a carpet you do not have control over. What is important is to make sure that you get ready for what is ahead of you.
“If you want to progress you do not find yourself in a comfortable situation. What is important is that when we go there, we want to progress and our objective is to progress to the next round,” said the Ngezi Platinum Stars coach.
Online Reporter