Chiefs coach explains himself
“We should have taken our chances and been more clinical
FOR Stuart Baxter, Kaizer Chiefs’ CAF Champions League fate might have been decided in Durban three weeks ago when Raja Casablanca stunned them 1-0.
“We certainly lost concentration in the first seven minutes [of the first leg],” was the Amakhosi coach ’ s response to a question about where it all went wrong for the Glamour Boys.
Raja completed the demolition job with a 2-0 victory on their home turf on Sunday night to dump Chiefs out of the continental tournament in the first round.
Christian Osaguona, the man who had headed home the winner at the Moses Mabhida Stadium last month, returned to haunt the Chiefs defence again at the weekend with two more goals.
“They have a good team and we need to congratulate them,” Bax- ter told the Chiefs website. “It was a mental game as well as Raja were thinking; ‘ do we go for the second goal after the one we scored in Durban, or do we defend ’. Towards the end we were pushing and pushing to at least get equal with Raja. That ’ s when they punished us on our mistakes.”
Baxter said his plan in Morocco was to never sit back and try to hit the hosts on the counter, and he stood by his methods.
“Most games are decided in transition and this game was a typical example. However, I will continue to have my players play like this, to always play positive and go forward to try create goals. We should have taken our chances and been more clinical,” he said.
Chiefs were successful in asking for a postponement of their Absa Premiership encounter against bottom of the log AmaZulu because of their travel schedule. The match at the Peter Mokaba Stadium will now be played on Thursday.