Nasreddine Nabi reveals his big concern despite Kaizer Chiefs' win as Soweto giants 'played with fear' and Kwanele Kopo rues Chippa United' 'worst' performance this season

Kaizer Chiefs emerged victorious against an unpredictable Chippa United team at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday evening.

Mduduzi Shabalala netted the sole goal of the match to ensure that all maximum points went to the Naturena-based giants.

Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi and Chippa's coach Kwanele Kopo expressed their opinions on the match.

"We needed to start on the front foot from the beginning, I would say that the first half was good, not very good but was good, the only issue after we scored the first goal, in the second half we played with fear, and when you play with fear, you play with the handbrake, Nabi said on SuperSport TV.

"When you play with fear you don't go forward or go back back, but it’s understandable, it’s psychological because the last results were not very positive and the players wanted so much to get three points that sometimes they felt like not going forward, just to sit back and defend.

"But after these three points, we are confident we can build from this. Congratulations to everyone, the goalkeeper as well, with good saves he made, but we are not there in our quality of game that we want to put forward but we believe going forward we will build from this and have more consistent quality games." 

"Firstly congratulations to Chiefs, we were poor, it's the worst I've seen of us this entire season. We couldn't come out from the back in the build-up and I don't think it's because of the press, we took wrong positions in the midfield," Kopo said. 

"Because we also tried to create the same block, they created the first block of four, but we just couldn't get out of the press and everything that came to Andile and Sphe, was going back and putting us under pressure.

"But still with that, as many Chiefs were close to our box, they didn't really have clear-cut chances, a header from Yusuf Maart that he Stanley Nwabali tipped over, so the real shot is the one that ends up in the goal," explained the experienced tactician. 

"Then you come out after half-time to change the game, so we changed to a 3-5-2. I think in the front we struggled to press them in their back-three, because we only had one striker up. So we really looked flat in the first half.

"Our frustration in the second-half was that when you have Elma and Eva upfront, you've got two big guys, you need to service them a lot and we took a long to service the ball to them and that let us down. We had a few chances but we were poor to be honest, Chiefs had one clear chance and they took it and that was the difference in the game."

After a positive result at home, Chiefs climbed into the top eight of the PSL standings as they placed seventh.

In contrast, the Eastern Cape-based team are occupying the 11th position, just one point behind Amakhosi.

The opening matches in the year 2025 will be vital for the abovementioned teams as they seek to catch up with the pacesetters Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.

Chiefs will be looking to maintain their momentum when they return to action on January 5, facing Cape Town City at the DHL Stadium.

Conversely, Chippa will enjoy a few days of rest before they get back to action. They will welcome Royal AM at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday, January 11.