The gospel according to Steve Komphela, is that Kaizer Chiefs played more with their heads than with their feet in booking themselves a place in the MTN8 final at the weekend.
Amakhosi beat Bloemfontein Celtic 1-0 in Saturday’s semi-final, second leg clash at the FNB Sta-dium.
“Credit must go to the players for the way they managed the game,” Komphela said in the post match conference of a tie Chiefs won 2-1 on aggregate.
“It was one of those games where you could not say we had total dominance. But we played more with our heads than with our feet and we’re happy to have made the final.”
Congratulating Celtic for having “left everything on the field”, Komphela said their opposition made it a hard encounter for the defending champions.
“One thing they threw at us was the different approach tactically. We had to read and adjust quickly, which we did even though there were instances where we didn’t take advantage of the time we had.”
Winning via a well-taken first half goal by George Lebese, who persisted with an attack that twice looked to be thwarted, Chiefs were actually fortunate not to have conceded early in the match.
Celtic, pressing from the outset in search of the away goal that would have cancelled out the one Chiefs scored in Bloemfontein a fortnight ago, managed to find their way past the hosts’ defence.
And on 19 minutes, Musa Nyatama threaded a fantastic through ball for Keenan Buchanan to leave the midfielder one-on-one with Itumeleng Khune.
But with the goalkeeper leaving his line and making himself big, Buchanan got put off his stride and he rushed his shot and succeeded in only sending the ball wide.
That proved to be the match’s turning point, although Komphela believes Chiefs would have been stung into action had Buchanan converted the chance.
“Celtic could have scored and triggered something from us.
“I know this team can respond, so you choose whether you force us to react or you stay how you are and we stay how we are.”
Celtic coach Clinton Larsen admitted that their failure to score was their undoing. “In the first half we got behind the Chiefs but it was the final touch that let us down. I thought in the 19th minute there was a key moment in the match with Buchanan’s chance.
“Had we taken that, it could have changed the complexion of the game but we didn’t.
“We gave a good account of ourselves.
“I’ve said it before, we are a team that’s still in progress and that we are improving with each game that we play and hopefully it’s games like this that will help us improve into a better team.” - The Star