Zesco United coach Mumamba Numba wishes he had gone on a spying mission to watch Royal AM ahead of next weekend’s CAF Confederation Cup date.
The Zambian club will be making its debut trip to Durban to face Royal AM in a 2022/2023 CAF Confederation second round, first leg match on October 9 at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Zesco will host Royal AM in the final leg on October 15 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Numba said he had watched some of Royal AM’s PSL matches on TV but would have loved to go to South Africa in person on a reconnaissance mission.
WHAT NUMBA THINKS OF ROYAL AM
“We expect a very tough game playing against Royal and we have watched them a few times on TV,” Numba said.
“But I think it is better to watch them live unlike watching them on TV but due to circumstances beyond our control, we couldn’t manage to go and watch them.”
Unlike Royal AM progressed to the second round after a 2-0 aggregate win over Mbabane Highlanders of Eswatini.
Zesco on the other hand enjoyed a first round bye.
The Ndola club is also Zambia’s sole representative in continental competition this season after Red Arrows were knocked out of the CAF Champions League by Primeiro de Agosto of Angola.
But Numba said they would not let the burden of expectations put pressure on Zesco.
Furthermore, Zesco needs to redeem itself after making a preliminary stage exit from the 2021/2022 CAF Champions League.
It was the first time that Zesco have made a preliminary stage exit from both the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup.
Zesco is Zambia’s record group stage campaigner with six league phase appearances.
“What we don’t need is to put our players under pressure. All we need is to give them the confidence to go work and produce the results that we expect from them,” Numba said.
