Simba SC head Steve Barker has shared his views on facing Orlando Pirates in the CAF Champions League, sharing his overall targets for the competition.
The CAF Champions League group stage draw was conducted on Wednesday afternoon; and the Tanzanian giants were drawn into Group C alongside three-time CAFCC champions RS Berkane, 1995 CAFCL winners Orlando Pirates and newcomers Colombe Sportive from Cameroon.
Barker shared his knowledge on all three opponents, expressing his excitement to face the Buccaneers once again.
“It’s a tough group, some really good teams in our group,” he told Azam TV.
“I’m really familiar with RS Berkane, as Simba is with the Confed and at Stellenbosch, we also played them. So, they’re a big team from Morocco.
“I am excited to be playing against Orlando Pirates; I’ve always had many battles against them back in South Africa. They’re also a really good team, having won the Premiership in South Africa last season. So tough opponent.
“And obviously whenever there is a newcomer to the Champions League in Colombe from Cameroon, they’ll also be a challenge.
“So yeah, it’s going to be a very challenging group for us, but if you want to reach the far end of such tournament you have to get through the group stages regardless of the opposition that you have.
“We have to make sure that we qualify for the knockout stages. So yeah, very excited overall and looking forward to it.”
Barker also acknowledged how tough the group is but made it clear that their target remains to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.
“The target is to qualify for the knockout stages; that’s the target, 100%. Our desire is high to get ourselves into the knockout stages,” he continued.
“As much as it’s gonna be challenging, we believe that we have the quality; we believe we have the ambition as the club to go as far as possible in the tournament, so our objective is to get into the knockout stages.”
Barker refused to entertain talk whether not making it out of the group would equal a failure for the season.
“We don’t look at failing, we’re going to qualify, 100% that’s our objective,” he insisted.
“We gonna set our sights on, we won’t have the word not making it in our vocabulary. It’s a start of the group stages and we aim to start well, also finish strong and get ourselves into the knockout stages.”