As the Betway Premiership enters its final stages, Polokwane City head coach Phuti Mohafe believes they can challenge for a continental spot.
After their 1-1 draw with Chippa United on Saturday at Buffalo City Stadium in KuGompo City, Mohafe asserted they had ticked the club’s mandate of surviving relegation, partially made the second mark of being in the top eight, and could go for the jugular in the closing stages.
The single point from the draw moved ‘Rise and Shine’ to seventh place on the log with 33 points after 23 matches.
They are six points away from fourth-placed AmaZulu, who occupy the last CAF Confederations Cup spot.
Polokwane have a game in hand over AmaZulu, and with seven league games remaining can still collect 21 points.
“We have climbed the first mountain, and that was to save the team from relegation; it is done and dusted,” Mohafe said.
“The number two mountain is the top-eight spot. If we can settle that, we will think about the number-four spot, which is achievable.
“It is within reach based on the teams that are in front of us; the log is congested. I think Kaizer Chiefs and Sekhukhune are in form, but we will continue to fight,” he said.
It took Mohafe’s team 85 minutes to finally break the deadlock and level matters against Chippa.
Ndamulelo Maphangule scored from the spot in reply to Malebogo Modise’s late first-half goal for Chippa.
Mohafe said the Chilli Boys had outplayed them in the first 45 minutes and bypassed their defensive system.
Mohafe is a believer in the low defensive block that has led to only six losses.
Chippa head coach Vusi Vilakazi employed a 4-4-1-1 formation to counter Polokwane’s renowned 4-4-2.
Chippa overloaded the flanks to crack the block and on numerous occasions would switch play to make sure the Polokwane structure at the back was not compact.
“We didn’t have a good start; we started on the back foot, but we recovered. They scored at the right moment, the last five minutes of the first half. We had our chances on transitions,” Mohafe said.
“I think we should have scored on one or two of those transitions, but we couldn’t because they defended well. They overloaded on our right side, with three players; they had 3-vs-1 and 3-vs-2 situations.
“After we identified the problem, we came up with a solution, and that is when we started to manage their number 10 [Azola Matrose] in the second half.
“He was the man that gave a lot of problems in terms of shifting and overloading on the sides; with his pace and skill, we struggled a little bit, and even at some point they took Kammies [Sergio] as an extra 10 and took Matrose and Justice Figuareldo as double wings and overloaded with Modise the fullback.
“They suffocated us, but the moment we shifted our number six to the right side, we managed, and we started to play our normal football, and once Matrose was subbed, we started to breathe and created numerous goal-scoring opportunities,” he said.
Daily Dispatch