Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has revealed what he told his players at halftime after letting a two-goal lead slip in the first half.
The Soweto giants bagged a third successive DStv Premiership victory after defeating Maritzburg United 3-2 at the Harry Gwala Stadium.
Chiefs had taken two-goal lead in the opening ten minutes, but Maritzburg managed to get themselves back on level terms before the interval.
Read: Chiefs Edge Five-Goal Thriller At Sold Out Harry Gwala
Look, I think we scored two early goals – great movements and I think from after scoring the second goal we thought the game was going to be easy and I remember telling them that these guys are going to put a great fight because they are in a position where they want to survive, you know,” Zwane told SuperSport TV.
“And, we knew at some point its either we manage the game or we get the third goal and I think after six or seven minutes from a dead-ball situation I was telling them that they’ve got good set-place takers that can put up good deliveries you know.
“So, from the throw-ins they are dangerous because they’ve got the physique and like I’ve said earlier on they’re going to fight for everything.
“They’re going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that they grind results today. It was never going to be about, you know good football pleasing football to the eye but it was about make sure you get the points from their side.
When asked about complacency from his side before the game, Zwane added, “Yes, I think we thought the game was going to be easy as I said than we allowed them now to gain control of the game and put us under pressure and we had about four of five throw-ins close.
“We had about six corners you know and at some point - we going to crack. Halftime, I had tell them when we had control of the game we looked like scoring at any given time.
“Second half, let’s gain control of the game again and the game is there for the taking or if they decide to sit they’re going to allow us to take control of the game.
“If they come, we’re going to open spaces we’ll still punish them either way. I think they took the foot of the pedal.
“They were more cautious and allowed us to gain that momentum and take control of the game and you could see it any time because we were finding the spaces but did not create enough scoring opportunities.
“But because of the pressure we were putting them under we got a penalty, but I believe we could’ve been better because we knew we were going to get those break-attacks and counter-attacks at the right time and punish them and fortunately we couldn’t get more chances to score but at some point we also had to add numbers in the box when the ball went out wide."
You must be SIGNED IN to read and post comments.
