TP Mazembe training for the Champions League
A feeling of impatience can be mixed with apprehension. On Friday morning, the private plane took them to Entebbe international Airport, then to Saint-Mary’s Stadium. The players and technical staff were all able to smell the competition and its demands. TP Mazembe has a very simple ambition: to win everything. The DR Congo championship, of which he is the holder, the national cup, and of course the Champions League, even if the competition, essentially embodied by the North African clubs, and the reduced means granted by Moïse Katumbi , the president of the club, push for a little more nuance.
TP Mazembe will be first trying to qualify for the group stage. It will then have to get out the Ugandan trap, embodied in Vipers SC, before considering what next. “We were able to have images of this team. Unsurprisingly, it’s solid, well organized, athletic, ”sums up Rodolphe Duvernet, the club’s new physical trainer recruited in August at the request of Franck Dumas. The threat posed Ugandans pose to the French coach of Ravens is well-known by him, even though his team can’t escape the title of favorites in this double confrontation. The Congolese haven’t yet played in any official matches, and their entry to the competition C1 against a more well-off opponent, since they faced the Central Africans Olympique Real de Bangui 3-0, 1-0 and Bright Stars 0-0 in the league, raises many doubts.
A sustained and interrupted TP Mazembe preparation
TP Mazembe played five friendly matches in Ndola (Zambia), since August 9th, after resuming training. They beat Zesco United (1-0), Buildcon FFC (1-0), Prison Leopards (2-2) and drew against Tanzania’s AZAM (1-1). They also lost to Kabwe Warriors (0- 1). “Preparation was sometimes disrupted by the absence of local internationals selected to play CHAN matches in August, others joined the under-23 selection, and during the internship in Zambia, Ngusia, Mika and Kinzumbi left a little earlier because they had been called up to play with the national selection of matches in Morocco”, Continues the former physical trainer at JS Kabylie, USM Alger. “In training, during friendly matches, the players work a lot, they are totally involved, but you know like me that nothing beats competition. A Champions League match is clearly nothing to be compared with a friendly match.
The Congolese won’t make it to Kampala from the suburbs with all their arguments. The Zambian Kabaso Chango and Ivorian Christian Koffi have been suspended for four matches. CIFTandi Mwape was given a more lenient sanction and will be allowed to take part in the return match in Lubumbashi on October 15.
📅 09.10.2022
🕒13:00 GMT, 15:00 L’Shi, 16:00 Kampala
🏆CAF Champions League – 2nd Preliminary round
🏟St. Mary’s Stadium in Kampala – Artificial grass
⚽️ @VipersSC 🇺🇬 vs. @TPMazembe 🇨🇩
🏁Referees from Sudan
FADUL, IBRAHIM, AHMED & ALAMIN#TotalEnergiesCAFCL #VipersTPM pic.twitter.com/hKvhKFIn84— TP Mazembe (@TPMazembe) October 9, 2022
Alexis BILLEBAULT
CAF Champions League – Complete program for round 2
Source: sportnewsafrica
