Moorosi Tsiane
MATLAMA assistant coach Mosito Matela says they are leaving no stone unturned in their preparation for their CAF Champions League match against Petro De Luanda on Sunday.
Tse Putsoa return to the competition after nine years since their preliminary round elimination by SuperSport United of South Africa in 2010.
Matela told the Lesotho Times this week that they are not hoping for anything less than a win on Sunday.
“We are hard at work, as we speak all of our players are in the team and those who were on national duty are also back and we are in the final preparations ahead of this match,” Matela said.
“We are playing at home and obviously all eyes are going to be on us to see that we do well. We cannot afford to lose. We have to use that home advantage because in matches like this, if you don’t win at home you are in trouble.”
He said they have been watching videos of their opponents just to study how they play.
“They are a closed book for us but we tried to get few of their video clips to see how they play and see how we can also plan.
“Petro De Luanda are not going to be push overs, but we are also under pressure because Matlama is a big team and every time we play, people expect to get results. We have also been working on our players’ mindset because they have to be strong mentally as this game is going to take a strain from them. Fortunately, the core of this team has international exposure so we are not worried that much,” he said.
Bantu played in the Champions’ League and managed to pass the initial phase of the competition. However, Matela said they are not moved by the feat.
“Look Bantu achieved that milestone and that is good, but that is not our focus. We are not in competition with them and we don’t want to pressurise our players. The focus is on how we want to play not how other teams performed,” Matela said.
