CAF Champions League: A limping Lupopo
FC Saint Éloi Lupopo will host Mouloudia Club d'Alger this Sunday on the sidelines of the third day of the group phase of the CAF Champions League. Defeat forbidden for the Congolese club which has only one point after two games played.
Philemon MBALE · Author profile ·
Listen to this story
Audio version in preparation · read aloud by your browser meanwhile
For their first participation in the group stage of the Champions League, FC Saint Eloi Lupopo has not yet recorded a victory. After two days played, the Cheminots have only one point and occupy the last place in their group.
The yellow and blue club of Lubumbashi will have the opportunity to relaunch this Sunday (13h GMT) with the reception of Mouloudia Club d'Alger, another club of the group that only counts one point after two matches. To continue hoping for a qualification in the quarter-finals, the Viets, who are already back to the wall, will absolutely have to avoid losing this Sunday; the best possible result remains victory.
And to go for this first victory, the Railroad players will have to avoid putting negative pressure on themselves, believes sports analyst Richard Kadima. «Lupopo can well record his first victory this Sunday. The club has all its staff and is gaining more and more confidence. But players will have to play free and avoid putting negative pressure on themselves," he said.
A championship victory to gain confidence
Before playing this match on Sunday in the Champions League, the Cheminots wanted to have a little more rhythm by playing a championship game during the week. A victory (4-0) in front of AS Saint Luc which gave the team a little more confidence before the big meeting against Mouloudia Club d'Alger.
And to the critics of some supporters regarding the fact of playing this match only 4 days before the African match, coach Guy Bukasa responded with the desire to have more rhythm.
«It’s heavy but it’s the high level. Real Madrid played in the Champions League on Tuesday but before this match, they had played over the weekend. I believe that if we want to evolve, we must stop hiding behind useless reasons. The matches when they are scheduled, we must play them. We tried to play on the freshness, we rested some of our executives and those who played, many came out early. We have to keep playing matches to have a good pace and better compete with our opponents who are of very good quality in the group,"
he explained.
With the draw (2-2) on Friday between the two leaders of the group Mamelodi Sundows and the Sudanese club of Al Hilal, a victory for Lupopo will allow them close up to just one point away from the duo and rekindle hope for a quarter-final race.