Marumo Gallants interim coach Raymond Mdaka says he has taken a lot from their 2-0 defeat to USM Alger in the Caf Confederation Cup tie played at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algeria on Sunday.
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This was Gallants’ first loss in the competition after three games, with the Limpopo based side having registered wins against Al Akhdar and Saint Eloi Lupopo in their opening two games.
Mdaka believes that the Algerian club is a good team, but looking at how they played he now knows how to prepare his charges for the second leg in less than two weeks.
“It was a very good game, we experienced a number of things. We are still going to play the second round. We are not undermining them, they are a good team. But we were able to see what we will be able to use when we play the second round,” said Mdaka.
“In terms of personnel (changing the starting line-up they used against Alger in the first-leg), we cannot confirm for now, we still have about two to three days, you might never know what will happen. But the approach might be very different from how we approached them (in the first leg) from the experience we got when we played them.”
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Gallants faced an Alger side that had plenty of fans at the stadium and the weather was very cold compared to the hot temperatures in South Africa. Mdaka, however, doesn’t want to make excuses for the loss and is adamant that they will do better when the Algerians come to the country.
“You cannot excuse yourself on that (weather and crowd), though it might have had an effect one way or another. Obviously this place (Algeria) is cold, it is not as hot as our place (South Africa). But we don’t want to put that as a reason for our loss. But when they come to the other side it will be a different temperature, different weather which will be advantageous to us like it happened with them,” he added.
Gallants are in second place in the group with six points. Alger are at the top with seven points, while Lupopo are in third place with three and Akhdar have only collected one point.
