Baxter tries to belittle red card incident in Chiefs’ final loss analysis

The red card changed everything for Kaizer Chiefs in the 3-0 Caf Champions League final defeat to Al Ahly on Saturday night. This is a fact that while coach Stuart Baxter had to carefully move around, he could not infinitely ignore.

Amakhosi lost Happy Mashiane on the stroke of halftime after he was shown a red card for a reckless challenge where he used excessive force on Ashraf Tafwik. It is however worth mentioning that the tackle was a rookie mistake from the 23-year-old as Tafwik posed no danger whatsoever and was on the Al Ahly side of the field, far from Daniel Akpeyi’s goals.

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But in trying not to put more pressure on the youngster who was already crying as he walked off the field, Baxter tried to egg-walk around it when he spoke after the game.

“I thought we started the game very well, I think the players approached the game in the right way. We pressed them a little bit higher than we had done before (in this competition). We tried to get the ball quickly to our front three,” said Baxter.

“And they got out of our pressure a couple of times, that is because the younger players lost a little bit of heart and the pressure dawned a little bit. They had all the ball but I thought we did a good job of defending our box and being a little dangerous.

“And if we had gone to half time with a complete team, we would have tweaked a few things. But as it was, Happy’s red card makes you go into a scramble. You think, ‘it’s a cup final, you can’t go and play 4-4-1 and only defend’.

“We then decided to go with a 4-3-2 and brought on Khama (Billiat) which was a bit of a gamble because he hadn’t played for so long. But having said that, the goals we gave away were poor… if we had defended properly and normally, then we could have extended the time they couldn’t score and frustrated them. Maybe then we could get a set piece or counter attack but as it was, we gave away that first goal then I tried to devise a way to get people onto the field that could bring us back into the game.

“So, we tried to hit the gas (accelerator) to the bottom but then immediately put the handbrake on… it’s a frustrating time but the lads did unbelievably well to get to the final. I think once the disappointment of the defeat settles, they will get the credit they deserve,” added the British mentor.

He said it is common that a final would be defined by one incident and this one was decided by the red card.

“Finals are defined by certain incidents, and this one was affected by the red card… it changed the whole completion of the game. But I have to say that if we had 11 men on the field, it would have been interesting to see what we could have done at half time to wrap it up.

“We needed to keep the ball longer, the first pass out of their press was too bad. Our attacks became too short, we didn’t get the ball into the front three the way we wanted to. We did, strangely enough, when Khama came on, we got the ball to him a bit more. But we were then hit by poor goals, it was always going to be a mountain to climb.”