‘Simba SC happy not to lose at home’ – Manara after Kaizer Chiefs progress

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The outspoken official now says the Msimbazi giants are happy to have protected the country’s heritage by keeping their unbeaten home run

Simba SC spokesman Haji Manara has praised the team for keeping an unbeaten record at home throughout the Caf Champions League campaign.

The Msimbazi giants failed to reach the semi-finals of the competition on Saturday despite beating Kaizer Chiefs 3-0 in their return leg quarter-final fixture at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium.

The win was not enough to give them a last-four ticket as they had lost 4-0 in the first leg played at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg a week ago.

Despite bowing out of the competition, Manara has now said he is very happy they have maintained the country’s respect.

“It is our happiness to continue to protect the respect of our country and for the entire competition the biggest achievement is for a club to protect being beaten at home, and we managed that in this campaign,” Manara wrote on his social media pages.

“Adding to that we have been eliminated, but that was a big study case for us, for the coming matches in the new season, and what we have achieved will give us the fight to go even far in the competition and now our focus shifts to the league and winning the domestic cup.”

Manara has called on Simba fans not to be disturbed by the team’s exit insisting they had not lost anything and that luck was not on their side.

“I want to ask our fans not to be worried very much after the exit, we did our best but luck was not on our side, and for those rivals taunting you, just know they are very happy with what Simba have achieved in this campaign in their hearts but cannot show it.

“Our dream is to make sure the country is well represented in terms of football but for them, they want to keep talking bad about us whereas they [our rivals] have never even reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.”

A double from captain John Bocco and Chama’s late strike pushed Chiefs to the end but also ensured Simba had not lost a match at Mkapa Stadium in the campaign this season.

In the group stage, Simba managed three straight wins at Mkapa, beating African giants Al Ahly 1-0, AS Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 4-1, and also mauling Al Merrikh of Sudan 3-0.

2021-05-22 23:00:10

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