Esperance coach Maher Kanzari is promising Mamelodi Sundowns a tough game when the two sides meet in the CAF Champions League quarter-final return match on Tuesday.
The Tunisian giants host Sundowns at the Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi on Tuesday looking to overturn a 1-0 deficit following their loss at the Loftus Versfeld last Tuesday and Kanzari is confident of getting the job done.
Part of what is giving the tactician confidence is that his team has welcomed back some of their big hitters who missed the first leg through injury and now feels they have enough goals in them to finish off the PSL champions.
“Defensively we were good but in terms of attack we had many injuries, so we were not that good, but once we get back our attacking players, we believe in the second leg, in attack we will improve and we will try to win the game,” Kanzari said as quoted by iDiski Times.
Esperance coach sees more goals in his team
“What I can tell you is that it will be a big game in Tunisia, if they can score one, we can score three and go through – so we’re playing attacking football, I’m confident in playing attacking football in Tunisia.”
With their injuries, Youcef Bellaili was forced to play as a false nine but struggled to get past the Sundowns defence in a game the South African giants dominated before Peter Shalulile scored the lone goal in the 54th minute.
Now, with some of his injury woes easing, Kanzari sees no reason why his team cannot secure the win they need to progress to the semi-final at the expense of Sundowns, who are under their former coach Miguel Cardoso.
“As I said, there were some attacking players injured, so I rolled the dice, I tried to play him, as you said, a false nine, he was good in some instances, in others, not so good, but we conceded a goal, which was a lack of concentration,” Kanzari explained his tactical approach in the first leg.
What is Maher Kanzari promising Sundowns?
“But without that, it could have been a 0-0 so I’m confident it will be a big game in Tunisia where we will go for a win. So yeah, Sundowns had the ball most of the time but they had not many clear-cut occasions, besides the mistake we made.
“I don’t think that it will matter in the next game, in Tunisia it will be a different ball game. In the last five years, we know Sundowns and a technically and tactically good team but as I said, possession is not a key factor to get a result.
“We will try to play another game. Yes, they can have the goal but trust me, in Tunisia we will not play the same game, we will try and win to get to the semi-finals.”
Esperance eliminated Sundowns in the semi-final of last year’s competition and will be looking for the same this time although the Brazilians have something to protect heading to Tunis.
