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. .0 Ngezi Platinum Stars’ journey in the CAF Champions League ended at the first hurdle as they were booted out of the competition by DRC side As Maniema via penalties.
The teams failed to find the target in 180 minutes of football and it had to go to the penalties at Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa yesterday. Polite Moyo and Gareth Madhake failed to convert Ngezi Platinum Stars’ fourth and fifth penalties after Farai Madhanaga, Kudzai Chigwida, and Tinotenda Murasiranwa had started well. It was a difficult pill to swallow for Takesure Chiragwi and his charges.
The young coach described the defeat as a painful one. “It is a hard defeat and painful to go out of the tournament through the penalty shoot-out “The players put in some hard work and I can feel their pain. “On a positive note I am happy with the performance of the boys over the two legs and going into a penalty shoot-out is like a gamble in which either side can win,” said Chiragwi.
After putting up a dominant first-leg performance a week ago in Lusaka it was a different ball game altogether in the return leg yesterday as AS Maniema dominated the game in the first half. It took the resilience of the platinum miners’ defence to keep the hosts at bay. AS Maniema came close to finding the opener on the half-hour mark when Rachidi Musinga saw his effort being blocked by Madhanaga.
Chiragwi had to make a tactical substitution at the start of the second half, bringing in Moyo, Carlos Mavhurume, and Tinotenda Murasiranwa for Claude Mapoka, Tinotenda Meke, and Tapiwa Mandinyenya. The hosts continued from where they had left off and again they came close to getting a goal in the first minute of the second half as they hit the woodwork before Nelson Chadya came to the rescue of the team with a fine save from a rebound. The substitution brought balance to the match which resulted in the visitors penetrating the host’s defence.
Ngezi Platinum had few goal-scoring opportunities during the match, with a golden chance coming in the fourth minute of added time when Obriel Chirinda broke loose on the left flank only to have his effort blocked by an AS Maniema defender. Despite having progressed to the next round of the competition, AS Maniema was full of praise for the Zimbabwe Champions. “We are happy that we have progressed we had good competition from them (Ngezi Platinum Stars) we wish them all the best going forward.
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