How Mine seek to finish off Chuoni

By The Southern Eye | Feb. 14, 2014

MBADA Diamonds-powered How Mine are looking forward to playing in the next stage of the tournament after trouncing Zanzibar’s Chuoni FC 4-0 in the first leg preliminary round of the Confederation Cup at Barbourfields Stadium last Saturday.

How Mine left the country yesterday after rescheduling their travel arrangements and are expected to arrive in Zanzibar this morning. Speaking to Southern Eye Sport while they were checking in at Harare International Airport yesterday, club chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo said everything was in order.

“We just r-scheduled our flight and we are leaving this afternoon (yesterday). Everything is in order, we are at the airport right now checking in and will be arriving in Zanzibar after midnight,” Nkomo said.

They flew out to Addis Ababa aboard the Ethiopian Airlines and were due to catch a connecting flight from Ethiopia to Zanzibar.

How Mine are basking in the glory of a four-goal home advantage and what they need to do in Zanzibar tomorrow is to guard against complacency and make sure they score more goals than try to defend.

Chuoni FC, who did not play badly on Saturday, complaining of the water-logged Barbourfields Stadium pitch, could have reserved some of their star players for the home game and hoping to cancel the four-goal deficit. How Mine bombarded Chouni FC from the outset at BF, but the goals eluded them in the first half until the introduction of young Emmanuel Mandiranga in the 40th minute, who opened up the visitors defence and went on to create two goals.

Mandiranga could do well if he is in the starting line-up as he dazzled the visitors defence and combined well with Kudakwashe Musharu and Warren Dube upfront.

The hosts’ defence was solid with Nyasha Mukumbi and George Magariro in the centre while Morris Kadzola played on the right and Terrence Majo on the left.

Keep Reading

But the man to watch as Chuoni bank on home advantage is forward George Thomas Mokoba, who made inroads into the How Mine defence with sporadic solo raids.

How Mine head coach Philani “Beefy” Ncube has said that he will not change the winning team and on Saturday hinted that the Metallon Gold-sponsored outfit would definitely park the bus in Zanzibar and try to defend those four goals.

Conceding defeat on Saturday, Chuoni FC coach Ali Abdalla Hassan said he believes he has a good team and if How Mine scored four goals at BF, his boys could do the same back home. The How Mine goals came from a Musharu brace, a penalty by captain Menard Mupera and well-taken free-kick by Dube.

Tomorrow’s match will be handled by Somali referee Olad Arab.