Mapeza breaks silence on Simba SC defeat

FC Platinum head coach Norman Mapeza has admitted that the Covid-19 results issue prior to kick off in their CAF Champions League Second Round clash against Tanzanian side Simba SC, affected his players psychologically.

The Platinum miners took a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg in Harare to the return leg in Dar es Salaam, in a game which was marred by a lot of controversy before kick off when the Simba officials claimed that four key Kugona Kunenge Kudada players had tested positive for the novel virus despite holding on to the results.

Mapeza feels that was the watershed in the game, and ultimately the tie, which the reigning Castle Lager Premier Soccer League champions then lost 1-4 on aggregate.

“I think some of them got affected psychologically after hearing about those guys who were said to have tested positive for Covid-19. But at the end of the day I can’t complain because these guys did their best under the circumstances,” he told The Herald.

“We had four guys who were in the first 11. It seems like it was something that was planned because if you look at it, it was department by department that got affected. It really affected us a lot but at the end of the day there was nothing we could do.”

“It’s always difficult when so many things happen before the game. It tends to affect the players psychologically. There are some other things that you can try to speak to the boys to remain calm and focused but I think everybody saw what happened during the game,” added Mapeza.

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