Yanga SC coach Sead Ramovic - Photo Yanga SC Media.
Young Africans (Yanga SC) head coach Sead Ramovic has revealed why his side suffered a 2-0 defeat against Al Hilal in their opening Group A match of the CAF Champions League at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Tuesday.
On his first game in charge having been appointed to replace Miguel Gamondi, Yanga enjoyed a better first half but collapsed in the second period allowing the Sudanese side under coach Florent Ibenge to score and carry the day.
Adama Coulibaly and Yassir Mozamir scored for Al Hilal to hand the Timu ya Mwananchi a third straight defeat in all competitions. Yanga had lost Mainland Premier League matches to Azam FC and Tabora United heading into the inter-club fixture.
"First of all, it is not a great debut for me or the team," Ramovic admitted in the post-match press conference as quoted by the Guardian. "We have to be honest with each other, and that’s what I will do with my team. One of the key things is fitness. If you want to survive in the Champions League, your fitness level has to be high.
“The fitness level of my team is not where it should be, and that’s why we could not maintain the intensity. We started well, created good opportunities, and hit the crossbar twice, but we couldn’t sustain that energy.”
Ramovic beamoned a fist miss from Aziz Ki by saying: "If we scored the first header from Aziz Ki, the game would have been totally different. We would still be talking about our fitness issues, but at least we would have three points."
Yanga will next face MC Alger of Algeria and reflecting on the game, he said: "We have to bounce back. The sun doesn't shine all the time, and now is the time to fight. This is when character matters. We have to analyze what went wrong, learn, and improve. I am absolutely confident we will come back stronger.
"The goal is still to win the league and progress in the group stage. It’s tough right now, but great teams rise to challenges. We’ll fight to turn things around, starting with Saturday’s game.”
Yanga will return to league action with a game against Namungo on Saturday.
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