Simba head coach Serbian Milovan Cirkovic
insists his charges are scared of no one as they prepare to host Entente
Sportive Setif of Algeria in the first round of the Orange CAF Champions League
at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
Speaking to Cafonline.com in
Dar es Salaam ahead of Sunday’s first leg match against ES Setif, Cirkovic
hailed Algerian side as strong team but expects his team to post good result at
home and stay in good position to qualify for the next round when they travel
to Algiers for the return leg match.
Cafonline.com: How do you see Sunday’s match against
Entente Setif?
Cirkovic: To
me it is just another game, I know they’re a strong team, but we’re not afraid
of them… we will try everything to make good result for us, it is very
important that we get good result.
Cafonline.com: Given you will be playing at home, what
will be your game approach?
Cirkovic: We’ll
go all out and try to win; they’re strong team, big team, I know Algeria has
good history in African football… they sometime won African Cup, so must expect
Setif to be very strong team, but we also have got a strong team and we’ll play
to win.
Cafonline.com: So, how have the preparations been going
so far?
Cirkovic: Our preparations have been the same as before the other
game (against Kiyovu Sport). We had a tough game in the league against Mtibwa
Sugar over the weekend….that game was good for us in the league campaign but on
the other side, was very important in our preparation for the coming
Confederation Cup match. We had a day off and now we’re back training,
preparing for Sunday’s game, hopefully we’ll have good game.
Cafonline.com: Have you ever watched ES Setif videos to
see how they play?
Cirkovic: I saw some(videos) from internet, but not current one, I
mean I saw some of the games they played about two years ago, I saw their game
against Al Herrach which they won 2-0….they’re very strong team.
Cafonline.com: The match comes about shortly after the
preliminary round matches. How hard is it to get your players to perform
against a strong team like Setif in such a short space of time?
Cirkovic: There’s no problem, three weeks is good enough time to
prepare for any game.
Cafonline.com: Do you have any injury concerns?
Cirkovic: Chollo (Said Nassoro) and Kazimoto are just returning
from injury and have not trained well, they’re not physically ready for Sunday.
Cafonline.com: Kazimoto, in particular, was
outstanding against Kiyovu Sport and scored a crucial away goal in the first
leg in Kigali, how are you going to replace him?
We have played four games without Kazimoto and
we won, I mean other players can come on and fill in perfectly.
Cafonline.com: You have shown faith in young players
like Jonas Mkude and Ramadhan Singano, what are their chances in the squad?
Cirkovic: They’re
very important members of the squad. Jonas is very important player for us…he
has been playing very well.
Cafonline.com: What do you make of Emmanuel Okwi’s
form; he scored twice against Kiyovu Sports which earned you a place in the
first round?
Cirkovic: I
expect all the players to do well…. Yeah, sometimes it’s Kazimoto, sometimes
Okwi, sometimes (Felix) Sunzu, sometimes (Haruna Moshi) Boban…. (Patrick)
Mafisango put for goals recently, I expect everyone to put up a good
performance on the day.
Cafonline.com: How has your second tenure at Simba
fared so far?
Cirkovic: For me it has been very good, I’ve very good relationship
with officials here, the players, we’re like a family and I am very satisfied.
At the same time
Simba captain and first-choice goalkeeper Juma Kaseja
was confident of a positive result against the
Algerians when he spoke to Cafonline.com ahead of the tricky first leg
match at the 60,000-seat stadium.
Cafonline.com:
You play host to Algeria’s ES Setif of Algeria in the Orange CAF Confederation
Cup the first round, first leg match this Sunday, how prepared are you and your
teammates for the tie?
Kaseja: Our
preparations have been going on smoothly. We have just played Mtibwa Sugar in a
league match and it was a good test for us ahead of the huge Confederation Cup
game. To come out with a 2-1 win against Mtibwa Sugar puts us in a good frame
of mind for the upcoming match and hopefully, we’ll win.
Cafonline.com: But
Tanzanian teams have quite often found it difficulty to overcome teams from
North Africa in the continental competitions, do you think Simba could defy the
odds this time around?
Kaseja: I must say
that we have very little knowledge of our opponents but at least we’re certain
that we’re facing a strong team, however, we’re determined to play our hearts
out over the two legs and end l the jinx against North African teams. I believe
if we play to coach’s instructions, we have a great chance to see them off.
Cafonline.com:
You’re working under new coach, Milovan Cirkovic following the departure of
Ugandan Moses Basena, how is it going?
Kaseja: Everyone
has got his style but Milovan has nice methods of training and is a great
tactician, the players are catching up with his trainings without difficulty
and as you can see the team is performing well at the moment. You know, players
are recipients of a playing style and formations offered to them by coaches,
the harder the style the harder the players would grasp them and it is easy for
the players to adapt to a certain system if after all it is not complicated.
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