Fathi and Bakala happy with shared spoils

The 2020-21 MTN/FAZ Super League entered Week 2 with quite interesting mid-week fixtures across the country, and one of the games which had so many expectations were a Lusaka Derby involving Lusaka Dynamos who hosted NAPSA Stars at Sunset Stadium yesterday in what was always going to be a cagey affair between two sides who had bragging rights at stake.

The Pensioners were the first to break the deadlock just before halftime with new signing Jacob Ngulube finding the back of the net as NAPSA led 1-nil, however, a few minutes later the visitors’ Captain Dickson Chapa was unlucky because his headed ball landed at the back of his goalkeeper’s net to level the scores to 1-1 going into the break.

However, the Second half which had end-to-end action failed to produce any goals with The Elite coming close to score on several occasions but all their efforts never yielded any positives as The Pensioners who equally failed to convert their chances held on to their own for the game to end 1-1 after 90 minutes.

Speaking in an interview after that match, both Coaches expressed happiness with their team’s performances.

Dynamos Coach Ian Bakala said his team played well in the second half and he hopes that performance would be replicated in their next assignment away to Forest Rangers in Ndola.

“The only area we are lacking in the midfield, We did not play very well in the first half but we did better and improved a lot in the other half and if we play like that against Forest Rangers am sure we will get goals,” Bakala told the ZamFoot Crew.

Coach Bakala said a despite failing to pick up maximum points, a draw was a fair result and the focus now is on their next game.

“All we wanted was a win, it’s better we came out with a point and for now we are going to focus on the next game away to Forest Rangers,” he said.

On the other hand, his opposite counterpart Mohamed Fathi said it was a good game despite missing a couple of chances.

Speaking to the ZamFoot Crew after the match, Fathi said even though he has limited options up front, he still believes in his strikers and going forward they will work on converting their chances to goals.

“We played very good first half, the ground is a bit heavy, we had a lot of chances we failed to convert them. We are at the beginning of the season we have to look at our front line because we have limited options in the front line with some players struggling with injuries but I am sure it will be well because I have confidence in my strikers and they may convert our chances to goals,” Fathi said.

The Pensioners gaffer further said that his team’s performance was better than their first league game in another 1-all draw against Zesco United and his focus is on the next game which he hopes of picking up maximum points.

“This performance to me was better than the previous game, now we are looking forward to the next match playing at home our focus is to pick up our first 3 points of the season,” he said.

“We are moving forward and our performance in the next game against Young Green Eagles will be better than the games we have played so far, the league is wide open and we should not panic because of the result we have recorded,” he concluded.

Both Dynamos and Napsa are yet to record maximum points after settling to draws in their Week 1 games against Buildcon and Zesco United respectively and they will be hoping to do better in their upcoming assignments.