Mighty Mukuru Wanderers coach Alex Ngwira says his side underrated a “wounded lion” in their 4-0 defeat to Nyasa Big Bullets in the semifinals of FDH Bank Cup played at Bingu National Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Nomads, who staged a stunning comeback to force Bullets to a 3-3 draw during last month’ Super League derby at Kamuzu Stadium, played the People’s Team at a time when they registered back to back defeats to Simba SC in the CAF Champions League.
But one thing is for sure, Kalisto Pasuwa’s side was eager to bounce back and did so in a brilliant fashion when they hammered their bitter rivals to set up a final showdown against Bullets Reserves next month.
Reacting to the heavy defeat, Ngwira said his players thought Bullets was in their weakest moment following the two defeats they suffered at the hands of the Tanzanian giants.
“It’s very shameful to us. Teams do lose but not with this margin and it’s like a funeral. We were not supposed to concede four goals against our rivals but we need to ask ourselves questions about what has happened.
“However, our players made things worse today and they didn’t play according to my instructions. We made some changes but they failed to make any impact and the end result was fatal,” he said.
Asked on what led to the dismal performance, a dejected Ngwira said:
“We undermined them because they lost to Simba SC and we thought they were in their lowest moments not knowing their were eager to bounce back and you saw how they performed hence conceding those four goals so it had everything to do with attitude and as a coach, I am very disappointed with this performance,” he said.
On his part, Peter Mponda said the key secret was their ability to learn from the mistakes they committed during the 3-3 draw in the Super League.
“We analyzed how we conceded those goals so we had to change our approach and advised the players to restrict Wanderers from using long and secondary balls. We knew it was easy to stop them and we did exactly that. Our defense was also very organized in the sense that they attacked and defended with caution plus winning all the duels hence making it very difficult for Wanderers to create meangful changes,” he said.
The win will see Bullets playing their Junior team on 8th October, 2022 at Kamuzu Stadium.
This means the two teams will walk away with a combined prize money of K33 million.
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