Zebras and Eswatini played to a less entertaining goalless draw at the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown, over the weekend.
The two sides will now meet in the second leg at FNB Stadium in South Africa where Eswatini will play their home matches, after their facilities were banned by CAF.
Mpote also admitted that his troops were lucky to come out the match with a point after being totally outclassed by Sihlangu.
“I am looking forward to the match in South Africa.
Today we played a wounded Eswatini after we won against them in COSAFA Cup. You could see that they had prepared for us very well. We will go there with a mentality of winning,” Mpote told the media in a post-match interview. Eswatini lost 2-0 to the Zebras in the COSAFA plate cup semi-final. He added: “We cannot go there and sit back.
They will hurt us because they are a good team. We are going to be aggressive in our approach. I see a very tough game in the second leg. It will be a totally different ball game.” Mpote pointed out that leading into the second leg, he will work on solidifying his defence.
Zebras struggled to click at the back on Saturday and could have conceded more than two goals had it not been for Gaborone United (GU) goal minder Goitseone Phoko who produced a man of the match performance.
Phoko produced not less than five saves over the weekend. “They (Eswatini) penetrated us with ease and could have scored at least two goals. I think this is because our structure was not good from the midfield to the defence.
They also denied us an opportunity to play our normal passing game. I think our players had inferiority complex in terms of starting the ball at the back.” The Orapa United coach further said that most of his players are inexperienced, which is why they struggled to assert themselves against the visitors.
“Some of the experienced players who I played today (over the weekend) were not part of the COSAFA squad. They joined the team a few days ago. They are still not match fit because they have just started their pre-season.
That is why I believe Eswatini dominated us.”
