Plateau United central midfielder, Charles Henlong has said his side are still very much in the race for a place in the next round of the CAF Champions League, despite a matchday 1 home loss to challengers, Simba Sports Club.
The Tin City side were beaten 1-0 by the Tanzanian champions in Sunday’s (November 29) first-leg preliminary round of the CAF Champions League at the New Jos Stadium.
Simba’s Zambian midfielder Clatous Chama scored the all-important goal for the East African side in the 55th minute of the encounter. Henlong said his side outplayed the opponents and were unlucky to have missed several chances that came on their way.
“We played better than the opponents just that we could not make our chances at goal count positively.
“May be a bit of hard luck because we got several chances, I think they got just one chance and they made good use of it.
“We did everything humanly possible to get back into the game to no avail, credit must go to the opponents for being good and disciplined throughout the clash.
“However, we should not be written off yet, we are still in the race to qualifying for the next round of the competition.
“We did not know the side prior to yesterday’s match now we have good understanding of their style of play.
“We will work very hard to correct and rectify all our mistakes hoping to make things right over there in Tanzania.
“Two goals look daunting but not impossible as we always create chances in all our matches both home and away.
“We know our problem to be finishing, we will make amend and ensure we get it right, we remain positive of upturning the deficit right there in Tanzania,” said the former Enyimba midfield maestro.
Henlong said the inactivity in the domestic league did not help their course in the encounter.
“COVID-19 lock down has its negative effect, ENDSARS protest compounded the problem and non-start of the league was not good for us.
“We have resolved to march forward to get the work done in Tanzania no matter what it takes, we cannot afford to exit the competition at this stage, it will not speak well of us,” said the former Giwa FC and Mighty Jets star player.
Both sides will meet again on Saturday, December 05 at the Benjamin William Mkapa National Stadium in Dar es Salaam for the reverse fixture that will see the winner progress to the first round of Africa’s first-tier interclub competition.
— Written by Humphrey Njoku
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