Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela says they had a good first half in their Nedbank Cup Last 16 encounter at home to Stellenbosch FC on Saturday night.
Amakhosi defeated the National First Division (NFD) outfit 2-1 in the Ke Yona competition at the Moses Mabhida Stadium to reach the quarter-finals.
Two goals from each half through Erick Mathoho and Leonardo Castro helped brush aside Steve Barker’s men to ensure Amakhosi bounced back from their 3-1 loss to Orlando Pirates in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) match last weekend.
Following the win, the Naturena-based side join Ubuntu Cape Town, Free State Stars and Baroka FC in the quarter-finals of the lucrative tournament.
Speaking after the match, the Soweto giants’ boss said he wants his men to have no fear when playing, but credited them for the victory.
“I thought we had a good first half, we should have got two or three goals which would have made life easy. In the second half, we almost made things difficult for ourselves,” Komphela told SuperSport TV.
“We need to develop a killer instinct where you distance the opponent from a hope of thinking that they can equalise,” he reacted.
“When leading 2-1, it puts a lot of stress where you can’t make changes for the future but you want to affect the game. I’m delighted with the victory, we go into the next round and we keep on working," he continued.
“You’ve got to be fearless but it is different saying it than them and applying it. They need to get into the level of thinking and the zone that you’re in,” he continued.
The coach revealed that he told his troops to dominate and play with freedom against the side from the Western Cape.
“We did say at halftime that we need to dominate and play with more freedom but again how you do things is about how you feel and how you feel goes back to how you think,” added the manager.
“The initial stage of any process is thinking and if you don’t have the level of confidence that you need to feel right in order to see things you won’t feel right and you won’t act right," he stressed.
“And for us to act right we need to be consistent with the results where in our head we know that we’re clear, emotionally we’re clear and action wise will be perfect,” he concluded.
Amakhosi will hope to bag another in when they host AmaZulu in the league next Saturday, March 17 at FNB Stadium.
