Yanga claim to see clear path

YOUNG Africans claim the massive 4-0 away win over Zalan FC in their first leg of the preliminary round of the CAF Champions League helped them to clear their path to the tournament’s first round.

The Jangwani Street giants were on rampage at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam over the weekend giving the South Sudan side no breathing space as they mercilessly handed them a heavy loss.

All goals came in the second half with Fiston Mayele netting a hat-trick on the day to make him to walk away with a ball in his hands, while his teammate, Feisal Salum contributed one goal.

The two teams will play against each other again on Sunday at the same venue in the return leg match that will decide who deserves a ticket to the first round of the biggest club level competition.

After the continental level assignment, Yanga will be in action tomorrow hosting Mtibwa Sugar in their fourth league match at the 60,000 capacity venue from 7:00pm.

“We knew that it will be a difficult game because we were facing ‘unknown opponent’ as such; we had to psychologically prepare well our players in order to withstand the match pressure of which they executed perfectly.

“We told our players not to underrate the opponents and that they should direct their full focus on the match…we also urged them to press hard especially in the opening minutes so as to deprive their confidence,” said Yanga’s Head Coach Nasreddine Nabi after the match.

He then lauded his team’s performance in the second half for managing to score four goals saying the big win has helped them to boost their possibilities of marching into the next round of the contest.

“We have made a big step towards fulfilling our target to play in the second round though we still have another vital return fixture before crossing boundaries,” Nabi said.

The results was a bitter pill for Zalan who landed in the country just one day before the game but they will be compelled to stay until Sunday when the reverse leg is played.

Trailing with four goals means they need to win by more than four goals in order to accelerate into the next stage.