Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has reacted to his side’s progression to the CAF Confederation Cup semi-final at the expense of defending champions Zamalek.
This is Stellies’ first time out in a CAF inter-club competition and they held the defending champions to a goalless draw in the first leg of their quarter-final clash a week ago and went to Cairo and stunned them with 1-0 victory to eliminate the Egyptian giants.
Stellies will now face Fadlu Davids’ Simba SC who needed a penalty shootout to decide their tie with Al Masry SC after overcoming a 2-0 first-leg defeat for a place in the cup final.
Barker revealed that his game plan was to defend tightly and deny the opposition an opportunity to score then pounce.
“It was obviously not an easy match for us,” said Barker.
“I think Zamalek had a lot of good possession and we needed to just make sure that we try and take the game 0-0 as long as possible because we knew that the pressure would then be on Zamalek.
“That if we scored in the second half, later in the game, like we’ve done, then it obviously becomes difficult for them.
“So our game plan was to be really tight, not to concede anything and we knew that they would become more and more nervous as the game went on.
“Yes I think it was very important for us not to concede an away goal. I think you all know in our home game Zamalek had a really big chance in the 86th minute. We made a really big save and I think that was a turning point.
“You know had they scored there it would have made our task coming here very difficult.
“So knowing that we hadn’t conceded an away goal it was just a message to the players that we have to show hunger, we have to show desire. We have to work hard. You know, you don’t come to a place like this stadium against a team like this who are defending champions and win without effort.
“So we knew that we would have to sacrifice and credit must go to the players for the work that they put in and sticking to the game plan.”
