Moorosi Tsiane
BANTU coach Bob Mafoso says all is not lost despite his side’s 1-0 loss to Zambia’s Nkana on Sunday.
Mafoso thinks his team has the capacity to overturn the loss when the clash with the Zambian outfit on Saturday in Kitwe.
A Matšo Matebele will fly to Zambia on Wednesday where they hope to overturn the 1-0 first leg loss. Ilunga Mbombo’s strike in the opening minutes of the game sealed Bantu’s fate on the day.
Mafoso told the Lesotho Times this week that they have gone back to the drawing board to rectify the mistakes they made in their previous match.
“It was always going to be tough because this was our first competitive match in eight months, so we are only learning of some of the weaknesses now,” Mafoso said.
“But it is now back to the drawing board to rectify the mistakes that we made and motivate the boys as we get ready for the return leg. We didn’t hurt Nkana because we failed to stretch them as they had blocked the goal mouth but that was because we lacked sharpness due to lack of match fitness. The opponents had an edge over us because their league is active, so they have been playing but this was our first competitive game after eight months.”
Mafoso was used to having visiting teams go all out for goals but Nkana surprised him.
“It was different on Sunday because Nkana sat back and tried to catch us on breaks. They caught us by surprise because we never expected they would be that cautious in their approach.
“We were beaten by a high-quality team; they showed their tactical superiority and were much more disciplined although they didn’t really threaten much. We were just unlucky to commit a school boy mistake and we got punished. They are only dangerous when it comes to long balls but we had anticipated it and I think our two center backs did so well to deal with that.”
The Bantu mentor however, said all was not lost and they will put up a fight in the second leg.
“All is not lost. I believe we can still do it. We will take the game to them when we go to Zambia…
“We still believe we can do better. In 2017 we lost to Mbabane and went on to win the reverse fixture in eSwatini but failed to proceed on away goals’ rule,” Mafoso said.
