The Citizen (Gauteng)

Chiefs hope to cash in

Hunt hails the fantastic effort which has set his charges up nicely for the home leg against Bamenda.

- Sibongisen­i Gumbi

An away goal is always a good thing in two-legged fi xtures and Kaizer Chiefs coach, Gavin Hunt is happy his side managed to eke out a 1-0 win over PWD Bamenda in Cameroon on Sunday.

The goal now sets Chiefs up nicely with an advantage coming into the home leg on Friday.

“Well, under very trying circumstan­ces, I thought it was an unbelievab­le result,” said Hunt.

“I mean, the travelling to get to the game was unbelievab­le, and everything around the game was difficult. That’s why I think it was a fantastic effort.

“I mean, we could have made the game safer, we had a lot of opportunit­ies to score. At some point I felt ‘here we go again’,” he added.

Amakhosi had been struggling to score in the domestic game and Hunt had probably hoped that playing away from home would bring about a change in their fortunes up front.

“But we got the goal and we knew straight away that there were going to be problems after that, luckily we scored the goal nice and late,” said the 56-year-old mentor.

Like Hunt had anticipate­d, Bamenda were awarded a “suspicious” penalty just four minutes after they had taken the lead, but Itumeleng Khune was in fine form and managed to keep the spot kick out.

“It should never have been a penalty. I had said to the players that once we scored, there were going to be problems. And yeah, justice was served (when Khune saved the spot kick).”

The job is, however, only half done for Amakhosi if they are to emerge from the preliminar­y round and set up a final qualifier against Angola’s Primeiro De Agosto.

If anyone, it is Hunt who knows that it is goals that will see them home and dry.

“It will be important to try and score a few more goals, that’s something we are lacking. We have a couple of good strikers but they haven’t scored, and that’s a problem.

“Our final pass wasn’t good today, at the end of the movement… but the pitch played a role in that. It was very difficult to play on.

“But the most important thing is we scored the away goal. We can’t relax though, it’s like it’s only half time. We still have a whole game to play.

“They are a strong, physical team but hopefully we will have enough to make it safe when we play in Johannesbu­rg.”

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 ?? Picture: Backpagepo­ix ?? GAVIN HUNT
Picture: Backpagepo­ix GAVIN HUNT

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