Sluggish Napsa Stars held to goalless draw

ZAMBIA’S representatives in the CAF Confederation Cup Napsa Stars were held to a goalless draw by Mozambican outfit UD Songo in a less than inspiring encounter played at Heroes Stadium on Tuesday afternoon. Napsa Stars came into the match looking to continue their hot scoring form in the competition following a 9-2 aggregate win over Ngazi FC of the Comoros Islands. The first half was a very sluggish affair with little creativity from the hosts and the visitors deciding to sit back and defend from deep in their own half. Muhammad Fathi was forced to make a first-half substitution as he withdrew Otieno for Danny Silavwe to improve creativity in the middle of the park. In the second half, Songo was more adventurous especially after the introduction of King Lau, and came close on several occasions but 0-0 the match ended. UD Songo assistant coach Carlos Manuel and Captain Sadique Mussagi both expressed happiness with the result saying they finish off the match at home. “We played the game according to our plan, we take it to the second game and try by all means to win the tie. Our league has not yet started so we came with a strategy that it’s better to defend, get a good result and take it back home and finish the game at home,” Manuel told the ZamFoot Crew. “We played a good game, We knew that our opponents are a good team at home but we worked as a team and got a result that has given us an advantage for the second leg, It’s now up to the team to rest so that we can win the game to go to the next round,” Mussagi said. Napsa Stars boss Muhammad Fathi was quick to put the disappointing result behind him choosing to focus on the return leg. “It’s not a result we expected, we expected to score at least a goal or two. We created a lot of chances but we did not utilize them but it’s a two-legged affair one in Lusaka and one in Mozambique so we have to think about the second one.” The second leg will take place in two weeks with the winner over two legs set to book a place in the playoff round.