After playing to a goalless draw against USM Alger in the first leg of their CAF Confederations Cup tie at the DHL Stadium on Wednesday, Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler said he is proud of his teams’ efforts and they need to do the same in the second leg.
While City were unable to score, they dominated proceedings in Cape Town, but will find things a lot tougher against USM in Setif at the Stade du 8 Mai 1945.
But Tinkler remains confident and said keeping a clean sheet was key, and commented about the importance of away goals in this competition.
“Obviously, we knew that this was going to be a difficult, difficult match, because ultimately, not a lot of time to prep and to plan,” Tinkler said after the game.
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“But obviously, I’m extremely, extremely proud of my players, because the strategy we applied tonight demanded a lot physically from the guys.
“And we’ve played three games in the space of eight days. That’s just a fact. And they had eight days to prepare for this game. So I’m extremely proud of the guys, you know.
“You can’t score goals, you can’t win games, and tonight, I thought we created enough to score and should have scored but at the same time, once or twice, we got caught on the counter.
“Darren had to make a real fantastic save in the first half. And it’s been in the story of us this season. I can sit here and I can tell you all stats and this and that, but it doesn’t change anything.
“But I’m very, very proud of the boys. I think they worked their socks off again, tonight. We would love to have won the game and gone there with at least a 1-0 lead.
“I think the fact that we kept a clean sheet tonight was also a positive mentally for the team. So nothing gained, nothing lost. We go there knowing that one goal actually means two, so more than what we would have got here.
“So that’s going to be obviously the plan. Go there and look to score. We now know exactly who they are and where their strengths lie and where their weaknesses lie. And now we need to go there and play the same way we did here at home.”
