Zanaco eye finals

Mon, 26 Feb 2018 09:39:08 +0000

By MICHAEL MIYOBA

 ZANACO Football Club assistant coach, Dabid Chilufya, says the “Bankers” will focus on reaching the finals of the CAF Champions league tournament.

Zanaco thrashed Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) FC 3-1 in the second leg of the preliminary fixture to the next round of Africa’s most prestigious club tournament.

Winger Ernest Mbewe, Martin Phiri and defender George Chilufya scored a goal apiece and propelled Zanaco to the next round of the CAF champions league tournament via a 6-1 aggregate score line.

Speaking in a post-match interview in Gambia, Chilufya said Zanaco has assembled a team capable of reaching the finals.

Chilufya commended his boys for listening to the technical bench’s instructions in the 3-1 thumping of GAF FC away from home.

“The boys did not play to our expectation because of the poor state of the pitch. We couldn’t play our game but the boys heard our instruction. In the first half, the Gambians were on top but we contained them and managed to score one goal,” Chilufya said.

After progressing to the next round, Zanaco will meet Mbabane Swallow FC from Swaziland with the winners in the two-legged fixture progressing to the group stages of the CAF Champions League tournament. Chilufya noted that he was not worried to face Swallows as they have a new team capable of beating the Swazi’s.

“We are trying to build a team that can compete fairly in the tournament. We lost about seven players who joined other clubs and now we have a new team but our goal is to develop a team that will go far in the tournament.

“We have played two games, next we meet Swallows. We believe Zanaco will get a positive result against Swallows because we know how the Swazi’s play their game.

“What we are aiming for is to reach the quarter-finals and get to the finals. Last year we reached the group stage but this time around we are getting to the finals because we have a good team,” Chilufya said.

Meanwhile, Zanaco captain Ziyo Tembo said the team is not under pressure and will take it one game at a time as they compete in the tournament.

“We believe in ourselves. We knew how Gambians would play the game because we played them back home. We are not going to be under pressure, we have been in this tournament before and we will take it one game at a time,” Tembo said.

Author

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button