BY TERRY MADYAUTA
After a number of failed attempts, FC Platinum relaunch their campaign for a place in the Caf Champions League group stages with a tough tie against Angolan champions GD Sagrada Esperança in Luanda this afternoon.
The lucrative group stages have proved elusive for Zimbabwe’s champions over the last few years and despite shoddy preparations mainly due to a ban on group training for the last two months, the platinum miners said they will approach this tie with renewed optimism.
FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza is well aware of the task at hand and after three weeks of training he believes that his team can give it a good fight.
They have done their homework and have discovered that the diamond miners from Angola are more solid in defence.
“We have been doing some video analysis of Sagrada Esperança, they are a very good side with very good and fast forwards. Their transition in attack is impressive and quick, so I have been talking to the boys so that we try to be ready for that,” the former Warriors captain said.
“Football is evolving, those match analysis are playing a very big role when preparing a match.
“From what we have picked in the last two matches they played, they are a very good side. They don’t concede easily,” he said.
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Mapeza added that their opponents were solid in defence, thus the need for them to be at their penetrative best.
“In 90% of their games, they have been winning one-nil so defensively they are organised. It shows that they have been together for some time.
“But it’s a game of football, we just need to go there with a positive mind,” he added.
Mapeza is happy that despite having to push his players hard in their crush programme to try and gain some fitness, he has got all his charges in good health.
He is taking a cautious approach to this match, but delights in that he is spoilt for choice with most of his players in camp.
Donald Ngoma, William Stima and Blessing Moyo, who were unable to feature in the Chibuku Super Cup group matches in June due to injuries are all available for selection.
GD Sagrada Esperança’s head coach Roque Sapiri will not sit on their technical bench because he does not possess the mandatory CAF A coaching badge.
The rich Angolan team are bankrolled by a diamond mining company has been playing regular football despite the COVID-19-induced lockdowns since the Angolan league was functional.
They return to the African safari after 16 years of absence with hope of making better strides.
In their last five matches, they conceded one goal, while scoring on six occasions.
For FC Platinum, this assignment probably comes with 2018 memories of their 3-0 loss in the same city, at the hands of Primiero de Agosto, who went on to bundle them out of the competition 5-1 on aggregate at the preliminary stage.
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