Asante Kotoko head coach, Abdul Karim Zito has praised the dedication of his players after the Toyota Cup glory and admitted they were just lucky in the game and came up against a strong side.
The Porcupine Warriors as invited guests, defeated South African giants Kaizer Chiefs by 3-2 via penalty shootouts last Saturday in a very entertaining fixture at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The game was a very fascinating one with both teams having some decent goal-scoring opportunities fall on their path but couldn’t make it count especially the home side.
Kwame Opoku came so close to finding the net in just fourteen minutes from kickoff but his header went wide. The Amakhosi also looked dangerous at certain point having come off the crossbar courtesy Lilepo and a huge penalty miss by Inacio Miguel.
Guinean goalkeeper Mohammed Camara in the shootouts saved four penalty kicks to win for Asante Kotoko.
In a post-match interview, Karim Zito after the game, admitted they faced a much better side reason he headed in with a defensive approach and was very satisfied how tactically discipline were
He further stated that they were lucky to have come out victorious in the game and came
“When it comes to winning, I’m satisfied and tactically too, I’m satisfied with our performance. The new players did exactly what o assigned them to do. We didn’t attack much but we were good defensively because you’re ahead of us in terms of preparations and cohesion
“We were tired at some point because we haven’t started the preseason well, we haven’t started running. What makes you a good coach is to look at your opponent and map up a strategy for them.”
“South Africans play like Europeans, they will never chase you and will let you chase them. Kaizer Chiefs weren’t bad but we were lucky to win.”
Asante Kotoko have now won three trophies in a month; FA Cup, President Cup and the Toyota Cup.
The Reds will return in the country very soon to begin preparations towards the upcoming GHALCA Top 4 and the Champion of Champions game against Bibiani GoldStars
