Yanga SC vs Al-Hilal Omdurman. Photo Courtesy Yanga Media.
Al-Hilal Omdurman head coach Florent Ibenge has praised his players for a solid display which saw them beat Young Africans 2-0 in their Group A opener of the CAF Champions League on Tuesday.
In the fixture at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, Yanga started strongly but failed to utilise their chances. However, in the second half, the visiting side looked the better side and took the lead in the 63rd minute through Adama Coulibaly.
Substitute Yasir Mozamil, who had come on in the 83rd minute, then drilled home the winner in the stoppages to stun the Timu ya Mwananchi at their own turf. Speaking after the game, Ibenge said his team took advantage of Yanga’s missed chances in the first half to carry the day.
“The game was tough and we didn’t decide to play with a road block but Yanga started very well, they were very good, they kept the ball and we started very bad because we were not able to keep the ball,” Ibenge told Pan-Africa Football.
“It was difficult for us during the beginning of the game but with experience we started to come into the game, Yanga had two good chances to take the lead but we stopped them and from there on we controlled the game.
“At the second half we wanted to be more aggressive, and we did, we started to keep the ball, we had some good skills and when we scored, it became so easy for us to play, it wasn’t what we wanted to do, and when we don’t have the ball we don’t want to have space for the opponent, Yanga was very good at the beginning of the game, they played very good after that slowly our experienced opened, we kept the ball and played well.”
“The two changes we made also gave us a boost, the players who came in changed the game for us, they gave more and it became good for us, we are going back home to prepare for the next game, we want to take it a game at a time and try to take points in each game and we are going to be focused now against TP Mazembe.”
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