Cele plays down Chiefs’ ‘away’ advantage in CAF CC outing vs Simba

Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Thabo Cele has played down suggestions they have an advantage by starting the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup's second preliminary round game against AS Simba in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The Glamour Boys managed to get past Kabuscorp of Angola in the initial round, while Simba eliminated Comoros' Djabal from the competition. This is the first time the Congolese outfit are playing in the competition.

The aggregate winner will advance to the group stage, meaning the result on Saturday at the TP Mazembe Stadium in Lubumbashi will be critical.

Cele has underlined the need to give the best on the pitch despite the conditions favouring the opponents.

No ‘away' advantage?

“People like to say that it’s an advantage when you start away because you have an opportunity to score an away goal and you come back home with that advantage, but I think football is football, and at Chiefs the pressure is always there,” Cele told the media.

“Now in this competition, it’s very important for us to get into the group stages; the team’s preparations have been positive since the FIFA break. We had more time to work on things we have been lacking in and just try and improve on things we’ve been doing well because our season started well and faced some setbacks.

“The club has previously reached CAF finals [they won the Confederation Cup when it was still known as the African Winners’ Cup in 2001, before losing the CAF Champions League final to Al Ahly in 2021], and that inspires us, so we believe as the current generation we can also do it at this present time.

“As useful as the statistics may be, we just need to stick to our game and focus on the things we have been trying to sharpen [and score]. We have been creating a lot of chances, but we need to improve our conversion rate,” he concluded.