By Emmanuel Asante Attakora, GNA
Accra, Sept. 30. GNA - Kjetil Zachariassen Head Coach of Asante Kotoko has attributed Sunday’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League exit to inexperience.
Kotoko lost to Etoile Du Sahel of Tunisia by 3:2 on aggregate, after they were beaten 3-0 in the second leg.
Coach Zachariassen said "there were a couple of things they did not get it right in the match" and this gave Etoile the opportunity to overturn a 2:0 deficit at the Monastir in Tunisia, making the Porcupine Warriors to miss the chance to be in the group stages of the competition for the first time in 13 years.
“We didn’t stick to the plan we had, we played a little strange football; sorry to say, we showed that we don’t have too much experience at this level.
"They showed that they have more experience and they used it, a long list of things were not good enough,” Coach Zachariassen said.
According to the former AshantiGold trainer, they had an opportunity to play in the Confederation Cup, where Victory in their play-off game could see them return to the competition they participated in last year, which he believes that, lessons have been learned from the Champions League exit.
“The boys are ready to learn and bring it to the Confederation Cup the things we noticed and talked about.
"We just have to learn from this, a lot of lessons, where most of it would be the mental aspect of the team.
"We’ve got to be more prepared in another way, which is the mental toughness, we have done a lot of things the wrong way and we have learnt from that" he added.
Kotoko went into the return fixture with a high hope of maintaining their good lead from the first leg but a first half penalty and a second half brace from Tunisian forward Aribi Karim made sure Etoile picked the only ticket to the group stages of the African elite competition, leaving Kotoko to fight for a place in the Confederations Cup by playing a two-legged play off.
GNA
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