FC Platinum face champs league elimination

ZTN Sports

FC Platinum face a champions league group stage elimination for the second year running after losing their third game 2-0 away to record African champions Al Ahly on Saturday night.

Two goals by Walid Soliman, one in either side of halftime, was enough to condemn the Zimbabwean champions to their third defeat in the pool after paying as many matches.

The miners are in a tough group that also includes Al Hilal of Sudan and Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia.

Making it beyond the mini league was always going to be herculean for the Zimbabweans but were hoping to at least surpass their poor statistics of the previous campaign.

In the last edition FC Platinum failed to make it beyond the group stages after a winless run of four losses and two draws. The then coach Norman Mapeza forcefully denied that they had failed, surprisingly claiming that they are not competing with anyone.
However, Lizwe Sweswe who is leading the team on an interim basis believes there is still chance for improvement.

“When we started the competition we were fighting on two fronts that is retaining the league as well as the champions league, which obviously was tough to handle.

“We have played three games and now three more games to go so anything can happen in the remaining games, again of the remaining three games we will play two of those matches in Zimbabwe.”

“However i do not want to put the players under pressure by setting up targets we just need to continue improving on our game.

“Against Al Ahly despite the loss we played well and if we improve on that performance i think we will be fine going into the next matches,” said Sweswe.