Photo Credit - Young Africans Sports Club.
Young Africans (Yanga SC) coach Maloud Hamdi praised his charges for taking instructions and putting up a good show in the first half of their 3-1 win against Coastal Union to advance to the next round of the CRDB Federation Cup at KMC Stadium on Wednesday.
Yanga took the lead courtesy of Maxi Mpia Nzengeli before the DR Congo player made it 2-0. However, Coastal Union pulled a goal back for a 2-1 scoreline at the half-time break but a third goal from Clement Mzize ensured that the Citizens carried the day.
“It is not very easy to play one Cup game, never easy at all because it is a knockout game, we had too much time to prepare, and I told my players I did not want to be surprised, in such a scenario you lose and it is the end, I didn’t want such a surprise, I told them we must take this game very seriously,” Hamdi told Pan-Africa Football after the game.
“I am very happy for that because the players took the game with a lot of seriousness, and in the first half we made the difference, and why I am happy was because they gave me the chance to change the squad in the second half, I gave time to some players to rest.
“We don’t have any injury from the game, and I am very happy for the win.”
Meanwhile, Coastal Union coach Juma Mwambusi told Pan-Africa Football: “We threw the game away in the first half, we gave away two easy goals, we should have done better to defend the two goals Yanga scored in the first half, my players did not concentrate enough.
“If you start a game as a slow as we did, and you are playing against a tough opponent, and with good quality like Yanga, then be assured of being punished and that is what happened, we were punished because of our own mistakes, I want to take the blame for the defeat, I don’t want to stand here and say we played enough.
“We didn’t play according to my plans, when we scored to make it 2-1, I thought it will be 2-2 and or even we could score and take the lead but once again from our own mistake we were punished for Yanga’s third goal, it was a mistake defensively that could have been avoided and the third goal meant we couldn’t recover, it became a huge hill to climb, the goal killed our efforts.”
The win enabled Yanga, who are the defending champions, to join rivals Simba SC as among the qualified teams from the Round of 32 fixtures. Simba advanced after beating Championship side TMA Stars 3-0 at the same venue on Tuesday.
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