Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler has reacted to his side drawing AS Otoho in the CAF Champions League preliminary round.
City were drawn against the Congolese club in Tuesday’s draw for the CAFCL, while South Africa’s other representative, DStv Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns, will only enter the competition in the second round, after being exempt from the first round.
It will be City’s first experience in Africa’s premier competition, but not Tinkler’s having been Roger De Sa’s assistant at Orlando Pirates when they reached the final nine years ago. He also reached CAF Confederation Cup finals with both Pirates and SuperSport United as a head coach.
“We obviously heard about the CAF Champions League draw,” Tinkler told the club’s media department.
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“Obviously, the first round is a preliminary round that we obviously need to try and win in order to move on in the competition. It’s against AS Otoho from Congo.
“And our analyst now is obviously going to have to be working extremely hard to try and get as much information that he possibly can regarding them, and what style of football and brand of football they play, so that we can obviously prep ourselves for that encounter, which is coming up in September.
“So we play them at home first, and then we play them away. And obviously, I’m excited to be involved in the Champions League again.
“And I know that the players obviously looking forward to that opportunity, to represent Cape Town City in such a prestigious tournament.”
Cape Town City would play the winners of Black Bulls (Mozambique) and Atletico Petroleos (Angola), if they would make the second round. The latter knocked Mamelodi Sundowns out of the competition in the quarter-finals last season.
