‘BULL’ DEMAND COMPENSATION

MANZINI – “We will see which gun shoots better.” These were the words of highly confident Sihlangu head coach Kostadin Papic yesterday at Mavuso Sports Centre during the national team media day.
Sihlangu will travel to Tunisia to honour their March 23 second leg fixture against the North African giants for the AFCON qualifiers to be hosted by Egypt later this year.

“We are not afraid of Tunisia. They do not know what they will face and we will play good football and we will see the results,” said the Serbia-born mentor.
He said they would not really have enough time to prepare the players but highlighted that they would play high tempo football.

The former Orlando Pirates coach added that they needed more training sessions and said the few injured players would recover on time.
Speaking of the national team selection, Papic said it was based on his assessment in the past two months in the MTN Premier League, Ingwenyama Cup and EswatiniBank Cup games.

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He said the doors were not closed for other players as they can be selected if they upped their game. Asked on his decision to snub long-serving captain Tony ‘TT’ Tsabedze, the coach said he could be selected to the national team if his performance improved but emphasised that age would definitely affect the player at national team level.

Papic said the game against Tunisia was not necessarily a do or die game and therefore it was right to introduce young players who would build the national team for future.
The well-travelled coach said they worked on the psychological part of the players not to have the previous result impact on their performance against Tunisia where they suffered a 2-0 loss at the same stadium during the first leg encounter.
“We will not travel with a wide crack; we are talking among ourselves and we will fight. We cannot promise anything but we will fight,” he said.

Papic said the young players would get a chance to showcase their potential and highlighted that the players were responding well to his tactics.
“They have exceeded my expectations, I was surprised. Some are not yet totally ready but are getting there,” said the coach.
Sihlangu is expected to play two friendly games against Mozambique and Zambia ahead of their trip to Tunisia.

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