CAFCL: Police FC lacked composure in Mogadishu City defeat – Ndayiragije

Kenya Police FC suffered a scare before sealing their place in the second preliminary round of the CAF Champions League on Sunday.

Playing against Somalia Premier League champions Mogadishu City in the return leg, the law enforcers found themselves trailing 1-0 at half-time courtesy of Issa Yusuf. They doubled their scoreline when Abdikadir Enow, who was through on goal, was fouled by Joash Onyango, and Ibrahim Bungura stepped up to send Ndiaye the wrong way.

“We had a very big problem with our last pass, we progressed well in the build-up but reaching at their danger zone, our passes got lost in between, most of the balls got lost unexpectedly, we did not expect to lose balls that way, especially when in a position to score,” said Police coach Etienne Ndayiragije as quoted by Flashscore.

Police will next face Sudanese champions Al Hilal S.C

“It kicked the flow of our game, and further gave us a problem in transition because we were supposed to track back after losing the ball so as to the defend, but we couldn’t manage on two occasions and we got punished, our opponents knew that if we move forward, they had one or two players at our area, who could initiate counter attacks to punish us.”

He added: “The moment we moved forward to score, is when we allowed them to score against us, again in the second half, when we moved forward to score, they again scored. All in all, I want to thank my players for at least keeping what we had managed to gain from the first leg, and it helped us to qualify.”

Police will next face Sudanese Premier League champions Al Hilal S.C. in the second preliminary round.