Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler has rued a missed chance to collect three points against Golden Arrows, saying that would have taken pressure off them as they turn their focus on the CAF Champions League this coming weekend.
City will host Angolan side, Petro de Luanda in the Champions League first leg of the second preliminary round at DHL Stadium on Saturday (17:30).
However, they will go to this game after they failed to put Arrows to the sword as they dominated the league match against the Durban-based side at Princess Magogo Stadium on Tuesday, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
City took the lead via Drameh Kajally, who weaved away from the markers before slotting the ball past hapless Nkosi Gumede in the 27th minute. However, Tinkler’s boys did not increase the lead and Arrows made them pay, as Divine Lunga scored from a set-play later in the match to equalise.
This left Tinkler crushing his face, as he was targeting the win before their attention switches to CAF Champions League football.
“Lot of people will be happy to come here and get points against Arrows, that is not the case for me,” Tinkler said after the game.
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“I want to come here and collect the three points and we should have collected the three points. So I’m extremely disappointed with that. Now we turn our focus to the game against Petro but obviously the league is still our primary responsibility.
“The maximum points would have been a major benefit for us because it takes a lot of pressure off you in the league.
“And I explained to the players that, with us being involved in the Champions League, that if you go through against Petro Luanda, it means certain other games are cancelled [rescheduled].
“What they do need to understand is that those games in hand do not guarantee you any points.
“These games now you are going to take it seriously and you need to look to collect the points because it takes off the pressure and stress from everybody.”
City face a Petro side that knocked Mamelodi Sundowns out of the quarter finals of Champions League last season, before losing 4-1 to Wydad Casablanca in the semis on aggregate. Wydad went on to win the competition after beating Pitso Mosimane’s Al Ahly.
At Petro, City will also face someone they know very well in Hugo Marques, who left the club just after the season had started, though he has not played for the club yet.
Marques, as City finished second in the DStv Premiership last season, was named the Goalkeeper of the Season and also claimed Player of the Season for City.
