CAPE TOWN – Kaizer Chiefs’ first assistant coach, Khalil Ben Youssef, dedicated the team’s victory to head coach Nasreddine Nabi, who was absent on Sunday.
Nabi has returned to Tunisia to care for his injured wife, which kept him from being present at Chiefs’ 2-0 triumph over Stellenbosch at Athlone Stadium on Sunday in the Betway Premiership opener.
The Soweto giants had a successful first match of the season after goals from Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Glody Makabi Lilepo saw the Glamour Boys walking away with three points.
“We promise to win this game for our coach Nazreddin Nabi, who knows all of you that he had an incident and we pray for his wife to, inshallah, be better, and as soon as possible he will come back with us,” said Ben Youssef.
“For the game, I think it’s always tough to play against a team when they suspend one player against one team and also when you score one goal.
“You think that the game will be easier for you, so to keep concentration and to keep focus in the game, it’s difficult for the players in that first half.
“I think we found some difficulty in finishing the first half, and we were lucky.
Ben Youssef praised the impact of his substitutes and emphasized that the team stayed disciplined to the game plan.
“I’m so proud of the performance of our players, also the players coming from the bench, we discussed that before the game in our meeting,” he said.
“We need the players coming from the bench to help us, and I think we are proud of all the players. We make only one substitution at the half-time, Mshini [Nkosingiphile Ngcobo], he just feels some pain, so we decide together with the doctor that it’s better to make a substitution to keep him.
“So, for that, like I said, we are so proud of the players.”
Image: @KaizerChiefs/Twitter.
