Queens eye to behead Mamelodi

SIMBA Queens will face Mamelodi Sundowns in the semifinals of the CAF Women’s Champions League at Stade Moulay Hassan Stadium in Morocco tomorrow.

The country’s flag bearers have marched to the knockout phase after defeating Green Buffaloes of Zambia 2-0 on Saturday whereas Mamelod Sundowns handed TP Mazembe a 4-0 blitz on Sunday to dance their way through.

In another semifinals battle, hosts AS FAR are pitted against Bayelsa Queens at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat later tomorrow for yet another electric encounter.

Simba Queens Head Coach Charles Lukula said from day one before departing for Morocco, at a press briefing, he informed people that they are heading to Morocco to compete at the contest and not to participate even though some of them laughed at his comments.

“Now, people have known that I am a coach with full confidence. As a coach, when you have players for two weeks, you know well their capabilities…and here is where good coaching comes from.

“Before coming here, I knew the playing format of every team and that has given us remedy to reach this far. Coaching is a deep subject, once you know how your opponent plays, it becomes easy to subdue them… coaching is not just making cones on the pitch and give training programmes to players,” he said.

He added: “In modern football, it is very important to conduct research of teams you expect to face in any contest and if you want to become champions, then be willing to faceoff any side you face on the way.

“I want to thank my players because they are always pushing for victories. They have winning mentality which is vital in a game of football and also, their level of confidence is great,” he said.

The Msimbazi Street ladies finished group stage campaign on second place in group A with six points produced from two wins against Determine Girls (2-0) and Green Buffaloes (2-0). They lost 1-0 to AS FAR in their opening game.

Their opponents Mamelodi Sundowns completed group B assignments on top of the tree with nine points in the bag after winning all their three matches.

They defeated Bayelsa Queens 2-1 before stunning Wadi Degla 5-0 and TP Mazembe 4-0 to leave behind a record of pumping in eleven goals in group stage of the 2022 Women’s Champions League.

As such; setting up a knockout match against Simba Queens is probably going to be the best game of the contest as each squad has potential players capable to push respective teams to the finals.