Ligi Kuu Bara: Azam FC were not good enough in Yanga SC defeat – Taoussi

Photo Credit - Azam FC.

Azam FC head coach Rachid Taoussi has admitted that his side were not good enough especially in the first half of their 2-1 Mainland Premier League defeat against Young Africans (Yanga SC) at Azam Complex Stadium on Thursday.

Despite the Ice Cream Makers playing at home, it was the Citizens who took the lead in the 12th minute courtesy of Ivorian star Pacôme Zouzoua before Zimbabwean forward Prince Dube doubled Yanga’s lead in the 34th minute, scoring against his former club.

In the second half, coach Taoussi made changes to his Azam squad and they looked lively but they had to wait until the 81st minute when Lusajo Mwaikenda sparked a comeback but the goal was not enough as Yanga earned revenge, having lost the first round meeting 1-0.

“It was not easy because we lost players, and in the first half we were not good at all, why? Because we lose some players, and some players were injured like our centre back, and we made more mistakes,” Taoussi told Pan-Africa Football.

“But in the second half, we controlled the game after correcting some few mistakes that we were making in the first half, and we played very good in second half, but when you are playing in such tough games, against a team like Yanga, who have very good players, you have to be very careful, you have to be 100 percent, but most of our players were not 100 percent because of injuries.

But despite all the injuries, we did our best, we did our best, and in the second half I made some substitutions, I did so because some players were tired, and I wanted to add more power in the second half, and we made some pressure, and had more to score, but we only managed one goal and Yanga players have big experience, but I am very happy with the way my players played in the second half.

Our focus remains to finish the season in third place, it will give us the ticket to CAF Confederation Cup which is good also for the team, we are on course and the defeat did nothing to stop out ambitions for the season, we will keep going, and step by step, we will finish third.”

They enabled Yanga to move 10 points clear at the top of the 16-team league table with 67 points from 25 matches while Azam kept their third place with 51 points from 26 outings.