27 Aug 2018

Township Rollers assistant coach Thabo Motang says they are aiming to beat Esperance de Tunis tonight in order to finish off their CAF Champions League campaign on a high note.

The two teams clash in the last Group A encounter at the National Stadium at 9pm with Rollers bottom of the standings with three points from five matches and already eliminated from the competition. Esperance, on the other hand, are second in the group behind Egyptian giants Al Ahly with 10 points and have already advanced to the quarter-finals. Esperance thrashed Rollers 4-1 in their first leg encounter in Tunis.  “Our focus is to fight for the three points and see the outcome in the group. We are going to treat the match like any other match we have played in this competition and fight for a win,” Motang explained during a press conference yesterday.

Like he did recently in their 1-0 defeat to KCCA in Uganda, Motang could lead Mapalastina from the technical bench again in the absence of the club’s Serb head coach Nikola Kavazovic.

Motang said influential midfielder Edwin Moalosi would miss the match having failed to recover on time from injury.  The club’s captain Maano Ditshupo said the match would be about redemption after the Blues suffered four consecutive defeats in the group stages.

“Our aim is to redeem ourselves after being beaten by teams. We have learned a lot as first timers in the group stages and would be a better team in our next champions league campaign,” said the combative midfielder. Esperance coach Khaled Ben Yahia, on the other hand, said they wanted to win the match in order to finish top of the group. 

He said the fact that they have already qualified would not cause them to take things easy. ENDS