Napsa Stars is the first Zambian club to go unbeaten in the six debut games in the CAF club competition and the first Zambian club to qualify to CAF club competition group stage on debut appearance after they edged Gor Mahia of Kenya 3-2 on aggregate to qualify to the CAF Confederation Cup group stage.
They are the only club to go unbeaten in the six CAF club competition on debut with the closest being power Dynamos who went unbeaten in their five debut matches in the 1981 season.
They were given little chance to make the group stage cut as many say CAF club competition is an experience entity and them being debutants the path will be a difficult one.
They started the campaign with a 9-2 aggregate thrashing of Ngazi of Comoros in the preliminary round. In the second round of CAF confederation, they were given 4/10 odds going into the second leg to UD Songo in Mozambique after recording a draw at home. They made it to the pre-group round on away goal rule after a 1-1 result.
In the pre-group round, they faced Gor Mahia of Kenya who is regular campaigners in the CAF club competition. Looking at the experience of Gor Mahia, it was thought that it was the end of the road for Napsa Stars in the competition.
To the surprise of many, they picked up a one-nil away win but a shocker almost hit them at home after conceding twice in three minutes and odds dropped to 3/10 and when football time approached 90 minutes of the game odds came to 2/10 with four minutes of added time approaching odds for Napsa stars progression came to 1/10. Something happened at the death, Napsa stars were awarded a penalty which Mayuka stepped up and scored a thing which led Napsa stars to storm the group stage after a 3-2 aggregate win.
NAPSA Stars were given 4/10 odds to make it to the group stage after they finished in the top 4 brackets of the Zambia super league standings but they have defied all odds and have stormed the group stage round.
Mohamed Fathi, the Napsa stars coach feels the team has the potential to go all the way past the group stage and is relishing the outsiders tag the team has been given in the competition.
“Let me tell you something, me I believe football is in the ground and anything can happen. If you have a plan and focused and you have faith you believe in yourself everything is possible. I prefer people to read our history, when we played against Ngazi of Comoros people said we are playing a weaker team so I said it’s okay. UD Songo is not a weaker team, are you happy?. Then came Gor Mahia, this is a more experienced team are you happy and satisfied?” Fathi said.
When squeezed about the chances Napsa stars have of coming out of group B of CAF confederation, a group which comprises of RS Berkane of Morocco, JS Kabylie of Algeria, and Coton Sport of Cameroon, Fathi was quick to answer that all queries will be answered on the field of play because it seems people are not satisfied with what the team has done at the continental stage.
“People are not yet satisfied, I prefer people to be patient and wait until we play our game. I won’t say what we gonna do and gonna happen, there is nothing called easy group. In the group stage, you cant say this one is weak or this strong,off-course there are some names but when it comes to the ground,” he said.
The Pensioners have had an extraordinary run so far and you can’t put it past them to get out of the group. Mohamed Fathi has done extremely well in the two and half years he has been in charge of helping the team move from fighting relegation to playing in the elite CAF Confederation Cup.
Well done Fathi some teams have failed to reach where you are good teams like the likes of GO-Mahia . Journey has to start from somewhere you are doing well and still can do better go Napsa go. ⚽⚽⚽⚽🥅📢
Who gives theses “odds”?