Caf Champions League: Simba SC confidence sky-high for Al Merrikh – Gonzalez

Simba SC have assured their fans they are ready to get their third win in the Caf Champions League when they face Al Merrikh on Saturday.

The Msimbazi giants will come up against the Sudanese outfit at Al Hilal Stadium seeking to make it three wins out of three having won their first two matches in the competition.

Al Merrikh started their campaign in the group with a 3-0 defeat against Egyptian giants Al Ahly in Cairo before they suffered a 4-1 defeat at home against AS Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On the other hand, Simba started positively with a 1-0 away win against AS Vita before earning a 1-0 victory against Al Ahly at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam to move top of the group with maximum points.

Simba CEO Barbara Gonzalez, who was in the squad for Khartoum ahead of the fixture, has stated the team’s confidence is sky-high and they are ready to win the match and reach their target of getting out of the group stage for the first time in the club’s history.

“We are ready, we have prepared well. I arrived here earlier enough with an advance party which included two board members, and also the head of logistics, and we have been received well and everything is going on fine,” Gonzalez told Azam TV in Khartoum.

“We have done enough in terms of Covid-19 tests [which all returned negative] and picked a good training venue for the team and today [Friday] we have done our final preparations ahead of the match and the confidence of the players is sky-high, even the coach’s morale is very high, I have never seen our coach confident more than he is today.

“We have started a journey, and what we usually do, is we keep learning every time we are outside the country, we always learn how to improve the team, in terms of the squad, in terms of logistics when we travel out, and also prepare the team psychologically.

“We also listen to our players, we give them time to express themselves and if they feel something is not right, then we move quickly to rectify and make sure they are happy, Simba is in a learning process as we strive to reach our goals, we want to get out of the group stage and after that, we will see.”

Gonzalez continued: “We have done everything in and outside the venue, our trip to Khartoum was very smooth without any itches and we thank all those involved including the Tanzania Federation for making it a success, I think in terms of management, Simba are very fine.”

On what Simba targets this season, Gonzalez said: “When I joined Simba, they gave me three targets, take the team to the group stage of Champions League, win the FA Cup and also retain the league title.

“I have already attained one, we are in the group stage of the Champions League, but always when you succeed, you will want to succeed more, so we are targeting the remaining two.

“If you look at the technical bench we have invested all, we have also invested a lot on match analysis, that shows you how ready we are to see the team perform well, and I know we will play in the quarter-finals and even reach the semis, but playing in the final, only Gods knows.”

In the other group match, Al Ahly will host AS Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Cairo also on Saturday.