Tinkler Proud After City’s CAFCL Progress

Speaking after Cape Town City’s goalless draw against AS Otoho in Brazzaville, Eric Tinkler said he was proud of his team’s performance despite the tricky conditions.

City booked their spot in the next round of preliminary qualifiers after a 2-0 win on aggregate and will play Petro de Luanda in the next round.

Tinkler, who watched from the stands due to the CAF ruling on head coach qualifications, said it was a trick artificial pitch, but he thought his team defended well, and he was proud of their efforts.

“Ja, I think the bad is the pitch because obviously, it doesn’t suit our brand of football because you know as much as it’s an artificial pitch and it looks flat It doesn’t have a lot of the fibres, so the ball bounces a lot,” Tinkler said in the post match press conference.

“So in terms of us being able to keep the ball on the ground, was very, very difficult. Now, the way they play, they look to play a lot of long balls, look to win the second balls, so we knew that it was important to try and prevent that from happening, looking to stop the supply.

“Then secondly, we needed to deal with the first ball. So we needed to be brave in terms of our aerial challenges. And then obviously looking to pick up the second balls. And I thought in the first 15 minutes, I thought they put us under a little bit of pressure with that, it took us a while to come into the game.

“So but I thought defensively we were very, very solid today. I don’t think they really threatened us, they had a few shots that our goalkeeper needed to save from far, but they had one chance in the first off with the through ball, and our goalkeeper did very well. And I think the confidence and the belief in the team grew as the game went on.

“And then obviously, fatigue comes because of the heat. And we made changes in terms of substitutions. And I thought that brought some more energy into the team And I could see that they didn’t have any solutions in the final third.

“And we started to now hurt them obviously on the counter-attack, we started to hurt them and we had two great chances to wrap the game up that we should have. But I’m very proud of my boys. I thought they performed really, really well.”

In this week’s edition of iDiski Times, you can hear from Mamelodi Sundowns star, Khuliso Mudau, who talks about the demands players must face at the Brazilians, and their hope to defend all of their trophies. We also talk to AmaZulu forward Gabadinho Mhango who discusses his Pirates exit, his move to KZN and more. Read the full edition of iDiski Times below: