Royal AM survived bad treatment and were not allowed to train at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium on the eve of their CAF Confederation Cup preliminary round, second round in the second leg on Friday, with co-coach Abram Nteo saying the experience was “very bad”.
ZESCO pulled out an unsettling treatment to disturb Royal AM after they played to a goalless draw in Durban last weekend.
Royal AM management said this was not sportsmanship as when ZESCO were in Durban last weekend, they allowed them to train at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on the eve of the match but it wasn’t to be in Ndola on Friday.
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Even when club boss Shauwn ‘Ma’ Mkhize tried to intervene, still Royal AM did not train at the match venue.
But this treatment did not have an impact on Royal AM as Ruzaign Gamildien scored the all important goal to send Thwihli Thwahla to the playoffs on the away goal rule, with the game ending 1-1 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium on Saturday.
“You know when you go to these countries, they start doing their own things – not allowing you to train, they did things to disturb us,” Nteo told iDiski Times.
“We didn’t train at that stadium. But we said ‘okay, we will go and play the game’. In that part, it was not good for ZESCO not allowing us to train. But we managed to play the game and go through.
“It was bad and we knew things like this would happen when we go into these countries, that the treatment won’t be as we gave them here.”
With ZESCO crashing out in the second round, it has come at the cost for their coach Numamba Numba, who was fired on Sunday.
However, Nteo says signs were there that they would get something against ZESCO, even though no one gave them a chance.
As Gamildien scored the all important goal in the 51st minute in the second leg, ZESCO had taken the lead through Collins Sikombe to send their fans into delirium in the 31st minute.
But the home side, who are more experienced in this competition than Royal AM, did not increase their lead and paid the price dearly as MaMkhize’ side went through to the next round.
“They (ZESCO) played well in the first half in Durban and they could have scored maybe two or three goals,” said Nteo.
“But in the second half, we were on top of them and we missed chances. But going there in Zambia, I knew that it was going to be tough, but the boys played well.”
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Royal AM are joined by Marumo Gallants in the playoffs after they beat Elgeco Club 4-1 on aggregate.
Cape Town City, who lost to Petro de Luanda in the second round of CAF Champions League, will also enter in the CAF Confederations Cup playoffs.
On the other hand, Mamelodi Sundowns crushed La Passe of Seychelles 15-1 on aggregate to progress to the CAF Champions League group stages.
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