CAFCL: Pantev demands more from Simba SC despite Nsingizini Hotspurs win

Simba SC coach Dimitar Pantev admitted his players lost a little bit of confidence despite coming out to secure a 3-0 victory against Eswatini outfit Nsingizini Hotspurs in their CAF Champions League second preliminary round, first leg fixture at Somhlolo National Stadium on Sunday.

After nearly holding the favorites scoreless for the opening 45 minutes, the home side’s poor marking on a corner kick allowed Wilson Nangu to give the visitors the breakthrough by nodding in a corner kick service from Neo Maema at the end of first half stoppage time.

Simba stars pushed them at the start of the second half and they doubled their advantage in the 84th minute when an attack down the right wing ended with a clever pass from Jonathan Sowah to Kibu Denis, who fired his finish into the top corner.

Late on, Nsingizini’s attempts to push forward resulted in a death blow from the visitors when a deadly counter-attack left Kibu with a 1-v-1 situation and the Tanzania national team attacker produced a calm finish to make it 3-0.

‘We need to show Nsingizini respect for next game’

“3-0 is a very good result, but I mean we need to have more confidence with the ball, and tactically to have discipline, and in some moments we lost our face, we started to play like them, we started to send too many wrong ball, and we almost gave them a chance to get into the game, which they couldn’t do,” said Pantev told Pan-Africa Football.

“You know that they have strong players, not enough comfortable with ball, but they are aggressive in duels, so we needed to play a little bit different, but second half, I think that when we opened spaces, behind our defenders, and when we wanted to use this semi spaces between central backs, and full backs, you know most of the time we can succeed.”

Asked whether he was impressed with his substitutions, he responded: “Yes, all guys, who came in made more enough efforts, and I thank them for this, and all players I think they were enough motivated, and they wished to take this three points, and this will give us ball confidence, and we need to show this team respect for our next game, because this is just first half.”

The two teams will meet again for the second leg next Sunday in Dar es Salaam, with Simba carrying a huge advantage, and one leg in the group stages.

The return leg will be played at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Sunday, Octocber 26.