Cape Town City take on USM Alger in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup final qualifying round on Wednesday, and Eric Tinkler is expecting a tough game.
City exited the CAF Champions League qualifiers against Petro De Luanda in the last round, but get a second bite at continental football in the CAFCC.
The winners of this tie will qualify for the group stages of the Confederation Cup, with City, Marumo Gallants and Royal AM still alive in the competition.
Tinkler says the Algerian club are a very good team, and if City are going to progress they will need to raise their game at home and put them under pressure.
“We come up against USM Alger,” Tinkler said.
“Tough team, we’ve managed to watch a good four, five matches that they’ve played. Very organised, very well-structured team with some talented footballers.
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“However again, we need to believe in ourselves, playing at home. We need to look to be positive. We need to look to put them under immense pressure.
“We need to play with a good intensity, and I think if we do that, then then we can get a positive result against them at home.
“But these games are not easy though. The quality that you’re coming up against is high quality. And we need to raise our game if we want to see ourselves progressing into the group stage.”
City lost away to Marumo Gallants on Saturday, and after that game, Tinkler said there was not a lot of time to prepare for Wednesday’s match at the DHL Stadium.
“There’s nothing we can do because there’s no time, there’s no preparation time,” Tinkler told iDiski Times’ Lethabo Kganyago.
“So I can’t work miracles. I’m not a miracle maker. If I’ve got one day to prepare for a game, then I’ve got one day to prepare for the game.
“It’s a big game, and normally you would like at least a week to get yourself prepped for that. So we’re gonna go out there and do the best that we possibly can with what we have, and the little time that we have.”
He was disappointed with the DStv Premiership defeat, and felt his team needed to change their mindset, especially if they wanted to compete in all competitions, local and continental.
“Right now obviously, the mindset needs to change,” he continued.
“(If) you want to be involved in all these competitions, you got to change your mindset. Because if you have the mindset that you currently have, then I’m sorry, you’re not going to cope in either. It’s gonna affect you in both.
“Because you got two days between games, three days be it a league match or be it a CAF game. If you get to the group stage, that problem is going to continue, should you get into the group stage.
“So the mindset has to change from everyone and realise that this is not easy, this is hard, accept it and I think that’s a hard lesson that players need to learn.”
