Yanga face Rivers Utd in CAF Champions League match
Young African players listen to their technical bench officials ahead of the today’s African Champions League match against Rivers United of Nigeria at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium. The match will start at 5pm. PHOTO| COURTESY
What you need to know:
- The match has been scheduled to start at 5pm. No spectators will be allowed to attend due to the African Football governing body’s (CAF) Covid -19 protocols
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s representatives in the African Champions League, Young Africans (Yanga), today play Rivers United of Nigeria in the first leg of the preliminary round at the Benjamin Mkapa stadium.
The match is scheduled to start at 5pm and Yanga players are upbeat to utilize well the home venue.
Yanga’s head coach Nesreddine Nabi said they were looking forward for a victory in the encounter.
Yanga camped in Morocco for less than a week ahead of the encounter.
Nabi acknowledged that they were going to face a tough side, and had not taken the match lightly, hence trained aiming to score many goals.
He explained that the match was very crucial for them to qualify in the next round and later in the competitions group stage. Tanzania’s club needs a big margin in order to pave ways in the return leg to be played in Nigeria in one week’s to come.
Young Africans are seeking for a new history in the tournament and so need to eliminate the Nigerian side. Records show that Young Africans were yet to eliminate a Nigerian team in both Confederation Cup and African Champions League.
“We are determined to record the best results possible on home ground. We know we are playing one of the new teams in the competition, but we have done all necessary preparations ahead of the encounter. We need to do our best and qualify for the next round,” he said.
Also in today’s encounter is Zanzibar’s Mafunzo FC hosting Interclube of Angola in the same competition at the Amaan Stadium from 7.15pm.
Meanwhile, three matches took place on Friday as part of the first leg of the first preliminary round of the Total Energies CAF Confederation Cup 2021-2022. AS Kigali and Biashara United notched away wins.
Biashara Mara United players deserve due to the fact that they had very little time to rest before their encounter as the match was played just a few hours after their arrival in Djibouti.
Hence, they deserve a part on the back for their thin victory in the away match (0-1). The team travelled all night to keep time in the match which put some of the team players and leaders with ‘high pressure.
