AmaZulu FC head coach Benni McCarthy has commented on their successful win against Nyasa Big Bullets of Malawi in the second leg of the preliminary round of CAF Champions League.
McCarthy and his troops went to Malawi trailing by one goal after losing 1-0 against Big Bullets at home in the first leg in their first-ever appearance on the continental tournament last week Friday.
Usuthu, though, managed to overturn their deficit and advanced to the next CAF Championship League round after beating Big Bullets 3-1 in Malawi, to win 3-2 on aggregate.
“I must be honest, I think myself and the whole of South Africa was very shocked, that we lost at home,” he said after the match.
“And I have to say we never underestimate, we never underestimated them. We knew that they’re a good team and they can make it very difficult for us, but we never underestimated them.
“So when over 90 minutes when we lost 1-0, we were very much shocked and to be honest, I didn’t know how dominant we were at home. And the amount of chances, if I’m not mistaken 20 plus, 24 to 25 clear goalscoring opportunities we had at home to score one goal we never did.
“So that became a little bit of a of a worry for me that you create so many chances I but you won’t score goals. So yeah, so we had to change the strategy because the opponent is not going to change. They are going to be more, ever more wary and disciplined, and organized, and reluctant to want to make a game of it because they scored the all important goal.
“So they scored one goal, and now we have to come to them. So they will always be not compromising. We’re the ones who’s going to have to go and win the game. We have to outsmart them.
“And I think we did two big cycles that they can’t handle. And I think yeah, it’s like a Qualinge, Memela, Sithebe, Tercious and Maleko, they started getting enjoyment out to front players holding up the ball, bringing players into the play.
“And then the other big strategy, we nailed it down to a tee. But so yeah, so I think this result was expected. It was expected. But I didn’t think that we would we would make it so difficult and complicated for ourselves, not winning at home, and then having to come all the way to Malawi. And then be under pressure and, having to compose and be disciplined. Almost like fight for your life kinda kind of situation.
“So yeah, I’m just really happy for the players that they were able to overturn the deficit and that they showed great maturity and experience and desire that we that we may be lacked when we were at home, the fact that we lost 1-0e at home, we didn’t have too many desire, but today we showed that the spirit, we showed character. We showed why we finished second in our domestic league.”
