Vita host buoyant Simba in CAFCL clash

AS Vita Club head coach Florent Ibenge

Friday Jan 18, 2019. 19:00

AS Vita will be aiming to a return to winning ways in the CAF Champions League when they play host to Simba at the Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa on Saturday.

Kick-off is at 18h00 CAT.

The Black Dolphins suffered a 2-0 defeat away to Al Ahly in their Group D opener last weekend. Goals from Nasser Maher and Ali Maaloul guided last year's losing finalists to victory in Alexandria.

Head coach Florent Ibenge is confident his troops will improve in coming games having made peace with what was a tough opening round trip away to the eight-time CafCL champions.

"We had several problems during the match, we have five games remaining and we will work on resolving these issues," Ibenge said.

"The sent-off has negatively affected my team's performance, we faced a lot of difficulties during the game because of that incident.

"I know that Al Ahly is the best team in Africa, but we will work on qualifying for the next round," he concluded.

Simba got their campaign up and running with a 3-0 thumping of JS Saoura in Dar es Salaam in what was their first group stage fixture in 15 years.

Meddie Kagere (brace) and Emmanuel Okwi found the back of the net for the Tanzanian champions.

“The team is well prepared for the game against AS Vita in Kinsasha, it will not be easy but we are well prepared for them, our aim is to have positive results away," said Simba head coach Patrick Aussems in build-up to the fixture.