CAFCL: Pantev says Simba SC displayed low quality in Stade Malien defeat

Simba SC head coach Dimitar Pantev has said many of his players played below standards following their 2-1 defeat against Stade Malien in their matchday two fixture of the CAF Champions League at the Stade du 26 Mars in Bamako on Sunday.

The defeat was the second for the Msimbazi Reds in Group B of the campaign having lost their matchday one 1-0 against Petro de Luanda of Angola. Pantev, who joined to handle Simba after leaving Gaborone United of Botswana, conceded that he was angry after failing to beat Stade Malien because his team was better than their opponents.

Two goals inside the opening half hour was enough for Les Blancs to follow up their impressive opening match draw at Esperance de Tunis with a victory over the Dar es Salaam giants at the Stade du 26 Mars in Bamako.

‘If you can’t score, you can’t win any match’

“The problem Simba is facing has not started now or one month ago, it is a problem from a very long period of time, even from the previous CAF matches, we never used to score goals,” Pantev told Pan-Africa Football.

“Since I arrived, it has never been easy to score goals, if you can’t score goals, then you can’t score. If you can’t score, you can never pick points, and the only problems most players played below their quality.

“We have a very good team, with better quality than our opponents, I am very disappointed because we have lost, and were not able to score, but that is football.”

Speaking on behalf of the players, Neo Maema echoed coach Pantev’s sentiments. He said Simba should blame themselves for not returning home with maximum points.

“I would love to have different conditions, you know, my first goal for the club since coming here, itr really breaks our hearts that we were not able to get something from the game.

“We are to blame, it is our own problems, and I am sorry to the fans. It hurts to lose two straight matches, we need to return and work out and see what is going on. We need to go to the drawing board and discuss what the problem is.

“All the players should take responsibility, Simba is a big team, and whether we play home or away we need to grind out good results, it really hurts what has happened. We don’t have a small team in this competition.

“It hurts, it really hurts, but we need to sit down and rectify mistakes and see where things have been going wrong, we need to come back stronger next year, I say sorry to the fans, this is not what they wanted from us.”

Simba, who are yet to collect a point through two games, will travel to Tunis to face group favorites Esperance in their matchday three.

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