Durban - AmaZulu coach Benni McCarthy believes his team will face a “different challenge” when they play against Guinea football giants Horoya AC at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Friday night, in their second African Champions League group stage game.
Usuthu will be looking to get their Champions League campaign back on track after losing their group stage opener 1-0 against Raja Casablanca last week.
“We face a different challenge from Raja. Horoya are very physical and probably more physical than Raja,” said McCarthy on Thursday.
“Their players are more athletic and they are quick. West African teams boast that kind of threat and that is what we have to deal with. When we play at home, showing composure and playing our own game, we make it very difficult for any team. TP Mazembe found things difficult. We have to play to our strengths, which is getting the players the ball in the right area in the final third."
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Despite being the oldest professional football club in South African football at 90-years-old, AmaZulu are currently playing in their first ever Champions League campaign. If they are to have a deep run in the continental competition, they have to take the lessons that they would have gained from the Raja defeat and adapt fast.
“We need to raise our level a bit. In Caf [African] competition, the physicality, speed and tempo of the game is a bit different as compared to what we face in the PSL, week in and week out. If we have to take lessons from our last game, it is that we need to be more clinical in front of goal.
“You may only get one chance, and sometimes in South African football, we lack that killer instinct where we convert our few chances. We let the opposition off the hook against Raja and paid the price. They created two chances - one was scored and the other was saved by Veli (Mothwa),” added McCarthy.
Though AmaZulu lost against Raja, McCarthy did feel that there were positives that can be taken from the defeat to the Moroccan giants, describing them as “the fourth best team in Africa”.
The boys are back on the grind as they turn their focus on our quest for glory in our Group B encounter against @HACofficiel this Friday at Moses Mabhida Stadium.#HebeUsuthu#UsuthuTogether pic.twitter.com/umv7NGjHlf
— AmaZulu FC (@AmaZuluFootball) February 16, 2022
“After Al Ahly, Zamalek and Wydad Casablanca, they are the fourth best team in Africa. They are very much European like and have a lot of European influence.
“They are surrounded by European countries and the coaches that they have are mostly strongly influenced by Europe. We didn’t embarrass ourselves at all and actually won over a lot of fans in Africa,” said McCarthy.