FC Samartex coach, Nurudeen Amadu, says his side’s campaign in the CAF Champions League competition is ‘very much’ alive despite concerns over a looming tough second leg game against Raja Casablanca in Morocco.
According to him, those concerns would not have come if Samartex had taken a number of the chances that came their way in Sunday’s game against the Moroccan side that ended in a 2-2 stalemate.
It was the first leg final preliminary match to the league stage of the CAF Champions League competition.
Samartex started on the back foot, conceding in the 20th minute when Mohamed Azrida diverted a corner into the goal area with the goalkeeper diving in vain to stop it.
That did not deter the Ghanaians. They reacted swiftly, piling pressure on the visitors until Francis Gyetuah beat a jittery goalkeeper, Anas Zniti, in post for Raja 16 minutes later with an overhead kick for an equaliser.
Michael Ephson puts the host ahead for the first time in the 43rd minute after the goalie failed to make a firm grab of another harmless strike.
Samartex maintained the pressure but failed to break the rear of Raja who defended gallantly and took advantage of some lapses in the Samartex defence to pull an equaliser in the 63rd minute.
That leaves the Ghanaians in a tricky second leg affair in faraway Morocco where they have to pull a win to qualify to the league stage of the competition.
With Raja’s status in Africa football – three-time winners of the competition and pedigree at home in such encounters, a section of fans believe Samartex may be on their way out.
But Coach Nurudeen Amadu does not share in this belief, arguing that his side could have secured qualification in the first leg if they had been prolific upfront.
“We paid dearly for not taking our chances. We created so many chances which we failed to take,” he told the media after the game.
“We did not play badly at all. We were good. My boys played well and gave a good account of themselves. The only problem was the fact that we did not only waste the chances but also gave them the chance to score some easy goals.”
“All of these are part of the game so we’ll put them behind us and focus on the second leg. We want to play at the league stage so we have to beat them. The most important thing for us will be to score from the chances,” Coach Amadu said.
Meanwhile, a 32-man delegation of Samartex is expected to leave for Casablanca, Morocco, today for the second leg tie scheduled for Saturday at 7pm.
Nsoatreman will complete the North Africa invasion with a travel to Algeria to face CS Constantine in their second leg final preliminary of the CAF Confederations Cup competition.
They have a much more difficult task after losing 2-0 at home in the first leg.
That score notwithstanding, Coach Yaw Preko has given an indication that it will be too early to rule his side out “because we are down already. With nothing to protect, we’ll be brave and try to stun them just like they did in Accra.”
BY ANDREW NORTEY