Caf Champions League: Simba SC quality will overpower Kaizer Chiefs - Aussems

Former Simba SC coach Patrick Aussems has revealed he will not be surprised if the Mainland Premier League champions beat Kaizer Chiefs in the Caf Champions League on Saturday.

The Msimbazi giants will come up against Amakhosi in their first-ever meeting in the first leg quarter-final clash at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg with the return leg planned for Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam on May 22.

The Belgian tactician, who currently handles FKF Premier League side AFC Leopards in Kenya, and was in charge of the Tanzanian club in the 2018-19 season, has insisted Simba have improved the quality of players in their ranks.

“At first their game against Kaizer [Chiefs] will not be easy despite Chiefs not being given a big chance to do well given the current mixed run of results in their league, but the game will still be tough because the way they [Chiefs] play in the Champions League is even more different," Aussems told Championi as quoted by Sokalabongo.

“But I still have a lot of faith in Simba, this is due to the way they have succeeded in their transfer activities by being able to add players with the ability to fight and that is the only thing that can carry them to get results in the game.”

Statistics show the FNB Stadium, which will be used for the match against Simba, has not been a good hunting ground for Chiefs as they have not been able to get positive results in various competitive matches.

This season in the 25 Premier Soccer League and Champions League matches played at the stadium, Chiefs have won just six times, drawing 11 and losing eight games.

Overall, in the last four league matches played home and away, they lost 1-0 against Chippa United, drew 2-2 against Bloemfontein Celtic, lost 2-1 against Tshakuma Tsha Madzivhandila, and managed a 1-1 draw against Maroka Swallows on Wednesday.

Simba will hope to maintain the solidity they showed in the group stage, where they only conceded two goals and kept four clean sheets as goalkeepers Aishi Manula and Beno Kakolanya were used between the sticks.

The Wekundu wa Msimbazi had an impressive run in the group stage and topped a tough pool that included African champions Al Ahly, AS Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Al Merrikh of Sudan.