Zimpapers Logo

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
FC PLATINUM coach Norman Mapeza says their Total Caf Champions League group stage campaign has been a huge eye opener that has also given them some invaluable lessons which they will positively embrace for a better performance in future.

The Zimbabwe champions have found the going tough in their maiden group stage campaign of the tournament where they are in Group B alongside holders, Esperance, 1995 winners Orlando Pirates and last season’s losing quarterfinalists Horoya.

Pure Platinum have not only been winless in all the four games they have played but they have fired blanks in the said matches, a statistic that has seen some critics coming heavily down on them.

“People might talk yes, but for us the campaign has been a huge experience for us as coaches and also the players. This is not to say we are happy with not winning but we are looking at the bigger picture that comes with participating in games of this magnitude. When we started this journey our objective was to reach the group stage which we achieved but once you are in there you obviously wouldn’t want to make up numbers but the fact remains, the terrain is never the same as our local games,” said Mapeza.

He said it will be a monumental mistake for people to compare the local Premiership games to the Champions League.

“We must never compare the two, the PSL is a different ball game to where we are campaigning now in all aspects. The preparations both technically and administratively are different and like I said, we have learnt some hard lessons which we hope to improve on as we move forward,” said Mapeza.

On what the country needs to do in order to have teams that will effectively compete in the Caf Champions League, the former national team star defender said there was need for constant participation in the competition so as to keep pace with the demands of the campaign.

“We don’t need to stay behind, we need to be always among these African giants and bit by bit, we will hit the right code. It doesn’t matter that we have had some teams that have reached the group stage of the tournament and maybe done better than us, situations then were different. The game demands evolve,” he said.

The other teams that have also gone as far as the group stage of the Caf Champions League are Dynamos, Monomotapa and Caps United with the Glamour boys going all the way to the final in 1998.

On plans for his squad in the local league, Mapeza said he had all the confidence that they will do well and was not worried.

“Like I said the local terrain is different from the African one, if you recall this argument of us not scoring was also being raised on the local scene but how many goals did we eventually score to win the title? For us to win the title, it means we outscored and outplayed our opponents,” said Mapeza.

FC Platinum’s last two games in the Caf campaign will be away to Orlando Pirates at Orlando Stadium and a home tie against Tunisian giants Esperance.

Besides their 3-0 shock defeat of Horoya, the Sea Robbers have also hit blanks in the other three games they have played, drawing nil all against FC Platinum and Esperance before going down 0-2 to the Tunisians.