The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
TRIANGLE face a huge task in their quest to qualify for the Caf Confederation Cup mini league phase after they were beaten 2-0 in the knockout stage, first leg by Nouadhibou at Stade Municipal de Nouadhibou in Mauritania on Sunday.
Second half goals by the Mauritanians will ensure that they have the advantage when the two teams clash in the decisive leg at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.
Taurai Mangwiro, the Triangle coach described the loss as one of those encounters where they failed to convert the goal scoring opportunities they created.
“For us it was one of those days where we just didn’t get our conversion right, we have a total of four or five very good chances that we failed to put away,’’ Mangwiro said.
According to Mangwiro, the Triangle players got upset after the referee allowed play to continue when the ball appeared to have gone out of play and in the process, Nouadhibou scored their first goal.
“The players got very emotional after the referee had allowed what would appear to be a ball that had gone out of play to be played in and with it it’s how we conceded the first goal and before we could recover they had scored the second goal. We tried hard but somehow we just couldn’t convert, we couldn’t score the much needed away goal,’’ said Mangwiro.
He has hope that his boys will get it right in Sunday’s return leg and secure a result that is good enough to see them go through to the mini league phase.
“We live to fight another day, we will get a lot of encouragement from the number of good opportunities that we got and hope that we continue creating and perfect our conversion. At the moment it might appear an insurmountable task but I have seen crazy results in football and we hope to come good in the return leg.”
Qualification for the group stage of the Confed Cup would be a massive achievement for Triangle since they are making their debut in the continent’s second tier club competition.
@Mdawini_29
