GU enters enemy territory
Moyagoleele will strategically depart on Friday so that they don’t spend much time experiencing the hostility of their opponents as it has over the years clouded African Football.
Their opponent’s coach, Raoul Shungu has expressed his dissatisfaction, claiming his team was
not well received while in Botswana. He stated that they spent 3 hours at OR Tambo International Airport before spending another 2 hours at the border, trying to cross into the country.
Despite the much anticipated hostility in Kinshasa, another factor at play which might determine the outcome of the game is the field of play, as Shungu stated that they are used to artificial turf and did not cope well to express their game plan on natural grass.
However that should be little to no problem for Gaborone United who train on artificial turf at Lekidi Football Center. Assistant Coach Pontsho Moloi has hinted that the combined international caps in his squad goes up to at least 500 caps and he is not skeptical that the troops will fight it out away from home.
Another obstacle the side face, is a jam packed Ar Pentecost Martyrs Stadium, on Sunday, how they will escape the home crowd and give out their best performance in front of the opposing crowd. Gaborone United will have to switch to a 4- 3- 3 formation accommodating three midfielders who will mostly win the battles and apply the low block with narrow wingers deployed upfront, the side will miss their wingback Alford Velaphi who lost his mother and Tshepo Maikano is expected to slot back into his position.
For the DRC based outfit they will have an uphill battle to try and turnaround this fixture in their favor, they need to lead by a margin of 3 goals to cheat the goal advantage rule, should the local boys score a single goal their work becomes even more tough as they will need to score at least 4 goals.
The winner of this fixture will play either Asante Kotoko or RC Kadiogo for a place in the group stages. Kotoko are leading from the first fixture by a solitary goal and will want to finish off the game in the second leg at home.
This year Botswana moves 10 places up in the latest CAF Five- Year Ranking. Botswana is now ranked 18th, up from 28th.
The ranking is used by CAF to determine the number of clubs that each of the CAF member associations may enter in inter- club competitions.
The top 12 ranked association members are allowed to enter two teams in each of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup, while the rest are limited to just one in each of the competitions.
Previously Township made the group stages of the CAF Champions League, three years later Jwaneng Galaxy ( 2021/ 2022) were also in the group stage, all eyes will be on GU to see if they can continue the trend and go all the way to the group stages.