Cioaba: Azam FC must remain in second position after Yanga SC battle

Azam FC coach Aristica Cioaba has maintained their target from the Young Africans (Yanga SC) match is to make sure that they remain second on the Mainland Premier League table.

The “Ice Cream Makers’ will take on the Jangwani Street-based giants in the top of the bill clash at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.

Azam are currently second on the 20-team league table with 57 points, two more than Yanga, and the Romanian coach has stressed the importance of making sure they keep the position by the end of the match.

“We have finished our one-week training for this game, every player’s level is going up, the physical level is also going up step by step and the spirit of players in training every day is very good and I trust the players will now fight and win this game,” Cioaba told reporters on Sunday.

“After this game, we still have other eight matches coming up, the league is not finished yet but I don’t like putting my head on one game, I speak for you that our plan is to fight for the top finish this season and we will continue to fight in every game.

“Yanga is one good team here, one of the biggest teams in the country, they have good history and have more support here, but Azam is one team fighting down from the pitch, down from the pitch, and fighting for every game and fighting for every point and today [Sunday] I am ready to make sure after this game Azam remain the second position in the table.”

On whether Azam will welcome to the squad three of their Zimbabwean players - Never Tigere, Bruce Kangwa, and Donald Ngoma - who arrived late from Harare owing to the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, Cioaba said: “My players who will start must have been training for the past weeks, and we cannot rush the players who just came the other day.

“But I think we will have two or three new players coming into the squad to boost the team in the fight for the points. We want the points; same way Yanga will be coming for the points but we are ready to carry the day.”

Yanga will be seeking to avenge their 1-0 defeat in the reverse fixture.