Saturday’s four-goal-thriller in Maputo featuring the hosts Liga Muçulmana and Zimbabwe champions Dynamos in the Caf Champions League first round, first leg, has paved way for what should be another enthralling and entertaining second leg tie in Harare.
The match will be played in two weeks’ time.
Dynamos will claim they have half the job done after scoring two away goals to come out with a draw.
Yet evaluation of what transpired on Sunday will show they should count themselves very fortunate to have managed a draw.
Muçulmana will rue getting desperate where they should not have and forgetting that a game of football is played over 90 minutes.
They lacked patience and went about their business as if their lives depended on them scoring every minute.
Muçulmana came out of the blocks charging and threatening to overrun Dynamos, clearly looking for an avalanche of goals.
But with so much emphasis put on attack and so little put in defence, they exposed themselves at the back and Dynamos twice — through Takesure Chinyama on bothoccasions — pounced and took the lead.
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What Muçulmana have is a very good midfield and a striking pair blessed with skill and an eye for goal, but what they do not have is a good defence to match that.
Striker Stelio Enesio, who scored the first goal, impressed the most, finding gaps and exploiting them while also jinxing around and proving a handful to defenders with his dribbling skills.
One thing they are good at is supporting the man in possession and they almost always had several options for the man with the ball.
But one thing that will make the clash different is it will be played at Rufaro Stadium where Dynamos benefit from the drive of +30 000 fans as opposed to the 2 000-seater venue where the first leg was played.
What Dynamos have is a good strike force where Chinyama showed he was in a different class with two goals of pure class, but like their opponents, the defence will not match what they have further up the field.
While sorting out their defence is what Dynamos would need to do, Devon Chafa and veteran Leo Kurauzvione did a decent job.
Chafa operated from one position to the other tackling and attacking with verve, but the two wingers on the day — Denver Mukamba and Martin Vengesai — were off colour.
Mukamba did well to make the first goal for Chinyama, but could have scored on another occasion.
On the other hand, Vengesai never got the opportunity to speed forward like he is accustomed to repelling attack after attack from the hosts.
Calisto Pasuwa declared that one foot was already in the next round, but conceded he still had a lot of work to rectify and fortify his defence.
“I can safely say half the job is done and we should be able to progress to the next round, but I am still concerned about the defence,” said Pasuwa.
“They still need to organise themselves better. But this was a very good team we have played, they knock the ball around and a lot of them are good ball players. We are pleased with the result and you will see a different Dynamos in the second leg.”
Dynamos, while conceding they were out played in most parts of the game, have promised that playing at home will see them employ a different approach where they would attack much more than they did on Saturday.
But they too run the risk of falling into the same pit as Muçulmana where they got over-excited with the attacks and exposed themselves at the back.
Missing Guthrie Zhokinyu, Pasuwa will have to redeploy the same central defence pairing of captain George Magariro and Patson Jaure.
Whatever the two managers will try and do to outsmart each other, the stage is set for a good punch-up between the two teams.
