The DR Congo tactician showered praise on the Msimbazi giants after they hammered the Black Dolphins at Mkapa Stadium
AS Vita Club coach Florent Ibenge has claimed Simba SC’s good run in the Caf Champions League is a result of having money to buy more quality players than his team can afford.
The Msimbazi giants continued with their fine run in Group A of the competition after they hammered the Black Dolphins from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 4-1 at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, to maintain their unbeaten run and also reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
Mozambican winger Luis Miquissone, midfielder Clatous Chama (two goals), and forward Larry Bwalya scored for Wekundu wa Msimbazi as AS Vita found the back of the net via Zemanga Soze’s effort, and though it was the first goal they had conceded in the group, Simba retained their top spot ahead of Al Ahly of Egypt.
Ibenge has showered praise on Simba after the game, insisting the Tanzanian giants are currently among the best teams in Africa and they deserved to progress to the quarters of the competition, and further said Tanzanian clubs have money to buy quality players and hence they can go far.
“Because you see now football is going with money, I think at the moment Tanzanian teams have more money than the Congolese teams so they can afford to have better players than our players in Kinshasa,” Ibenge told Goal after the game.
“If you see a lot of players [especially our better players], they are coming all the way from Kinshasa and from Congo to play in Tanzania so the reason they [Simba] have a better team than we can have.
“For the moment we have this problem, we have less money than Tanzanian and other teams in Africa so our teams are suffering to get good results because of that.”
On the outcome of the game which ended their slim hopes of making it to the quarter-finals, the DR Congo tactician said: “I simply don’t have much to say, we have lost to one of the best teams in Africa at the moment, they were the better side, they were better than us in all the key departments and they deserve to progress to the quarter-finals.
“It is normal that they [Simba] won the game, we tried to do our best but they have some players who are really good, very good in quality and I tell you congratulation to them and I wish them good luck for the next game and next round.”
In the group’s other game, defending champions Al Ahly came from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw away to Al-Merreikh also on Saturday.
Simba lead the group on 13 points from five matches, while Al Ahly are second on eight, AS Vita are third on four while Merrikh are last on two points.
Simba will wind up their matches with a trip to Cairo to face Al Ahly on April 9, the same day AS Vita will welcome Merrikh in Kinshasa.