Daily Nation Newspaper

AUTOMOTIVE FUTSAL SIDE IMPRESSES SA’S NATIONAL COACH

- By MICHAEL MIYOBA

SOUTH Africa national futsal team coach, Chris Naidu, has hailed Premier Futsal League Champions, Automotive FC, for putting up a spirited fight during a friendly fixture played on Wednesday night at Automotive Futsal Arena in Lusaka.

Speaking in an interview after guiding his team to a 7-6 victory over Automotive who claimed the 2018/2019 futsal league title undefeated, Naidu said the Zambian club helped them assess where they needed to improve as they prepared for the

2020 AFCON to be held in Morocco.

Naidu said Automotive is an organised team with exceptiona­l talent.

“Their talent is exceptiona­l. You can see it is a well-structured team which should be respected and has helped us to assess where we need to improve and we are going to work on that before playing Zambia,” Naidu said.

South Africa, who came out second at the four-nation’s tournament which was eventually won by Egypt in South Africa, will today face Zambia in another internatio­nal friendly match set for Automotive Futsal Arena.

And Automotive Futsal Academy coach, Andrea Christofor­etti, described the game against South Africa as a tough match which has given the Zambian club insight on were they need to improve as they continue to prepare for the league set to kick off this month.

Christofor­etti said he was not disappoint­ed with the defeat with his team having created numerous scoring chances which could have guaranteed a different result had they gone in.

He however noted that the game against South Africa gave his players an opportunit­y to learn from one of the best ranked national futsal teams in Africa.

 ?? - Picture by MICHAEL MIYOBA. ?? Jack Simwami of Automotive FC attempts to beat South Africa’s Yazeed Joharie during an internatio­nal friendly fixture at Automotive Futsal Arena.
- Picture by MICHAEL MIYOBA. Jack Simwami of Automotive FC attempts to beat South Africa’s Yazeed Joharie during an internatio­nal friendly fixture at Automotive Futsal Arena.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Zambia