NAPSA Stars football club on Sunday afternoon qualified to the group stages of the CAF confederation cup after drawing 2-2 on the match day and winning 3-2 on aggregate against an experienced Kenyan giant Gor Mahia.
An emotional Mohamed Fathi told the ZamFoot Crew in a post-match interview that it was not easy to make history with players who did not have a lot of experience in the Competition.
Fathi praised his players for fighting till the final whistle and making history of qualifying to the group stage on their first try.
” It’s not easy to make history for the first time for the club to qualify to continental and now the group stages it’s not an easy competition most of our players are Zambians about 80% of them, So experience in continental is not that much but they are building up themselves every game and we are meeting more experienced teams in every game so it was a good game for the team, captain Dickson Chapa and the Management of Napsa stars, the vice president and the people of Zambia and this is the result of fighting till the last second,” Fathi said.
Meanwhile, captain of the side, Dickson Chapa said he was very happy to have qualified and gave applause to his teammates for the job well done and for following the coach’s instructions.
“I would love to thank God Almighty for this sweet victory, I would also wish to appreciate my teammates for the job well done I think we played according to the game plan of the coach although they scored us we didn’t give up. We had to fight to the last minute I think that’s the character the coach has always emphasized on his team that’s what he always tells us to do whenever we are on the pitch,” Chapa said.
Napsa is participating for the first time in Continental football and coach Fathi added that whenever you play in Continental football it’s always important to play till the final second alluding that the team had a decent game because if they played badly they couldn’t have qualified to the group stage.
The Pensioners have been drawn in Group B against North African opposition in Algerian side JS Kabylie and holders RS Berkane of Morocco at Lusaka’s Heroes Stadium. Cameroon side Coton Sport who complete group B will also make a return to Lusaka.
