Once the Soweto giants had scored, it was all about holding on for the win, which they managed to do thanks to an Itumeleng Khune penalty save
Kaizer Chiefs’ gutsy 1-0 win over PWD Bamenda in a Caf Champions League preliminary round first-leg tie on Sunday afternoon in Limbe was especially pleasing to head coach Gavin Hunt.
In what was Amakhosi’s ninth match in all competitions this season, it was just their third win.
It came at a time when the pressure had been rising after some especially disappointing results, including a shock loss to Swallows FC a few days before, not to mention a 5-0 aggregate drubbing at the hands of Orlando Pirates in the two-legged MTN8 semi-finals.
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Sunday’s win against PWD Bamenda also came against the backdrop of Amakhosi stepping into the unknown against a team about which very little was known. Victory was secured via an Eric Mathoho goal seven minutes from time, as well as a late penalty save by Itumeleng Khune.
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Hunt was proud of his charges for the character they showed in West Africa.
“Under very trying circumstances, I thought it was an unbelievable win,” he said. “I mean the travel to get to this game was unbelievable. Everything around the game was very difficult, so I thought it was a fantastic effort.
“We could have made the game safer, we had a lot of opportunities from which we didn’t score, and I thought ‘here we go again’,” said Hunt, alluding to some of the misfortunes which his side have suffered so far this season.”
There has for many years been talk of how difficult it is for South African teams playing away from home on the continent; that match officials tend to favour the home side.
The former SuperSport United and Bidvest coach alluded to this – which he believes was the case with the late penalty his side conceded – though he was careful with his words not to say so directly.
In fact he believes that it was a blessing in disguise that Chiefs’ goal came so late – because that gave the home side less time to come back.
“But we got the goal, and we knew there were going to be problems after that, luckily we scored the goal nice and late.
“It should never have been a penalty, should it?” he questioned. “But I said to the players, once we score there’s going to be problems. And ja, so we got a little bit of just reward.”
The return match takes place at the FNB Stadium on Friday evening.
