Hunt hails ‘fantastic effort’ as Chiefs grab advantage in Champions League opener

An away goal is always a good thing in two-legged fixtures and Kaizer Chiefs coach, Gavin Hunt is happy his side managed to eke out a 1-0 win to PWD Bamenda out in Cameroon on Sunday afternoon. The goal now sets Chiefs up nicely with an advantage coming to the home leg on Friday.

READ MORE: Away goal gives Chiefs a perfect start to Champions League campaign

“Well, under very trying circumstances, I thought it was an unbelievable result,” said Hunt. “I mean, the travelling to get to the game was unbelievable, and everything around the game was difficult. That’s why I think it was a fantastic effort.

“I mean, we could have made the game safer, we had a lot of opportunities to score. At some point I felt ‘here we go again’,” he added.

Amakhosi had been struggling to score in the domestic game and Hunt had probably hoped that playing away from home would bring about a change in their fortunes up front.

“But we got the goal and we knew straight away that there were going to be problems after that, luckily we scored the goal nice and late,” said the 56-year-old.

Like Hunt had anticipated, Bamenda were awarded a suspicious penalty just four minutes after they had taken the lead, but Itumeleng Khune was in fine form and managed to keep the spot kick away.

“It should never have been a penalty… so, I had said to the players that once we score there is going to be problems. And yeah, justice was served (when Khune saved the spot kick).”

The job is, however, only half done for Amakhosi if they are to come out of the preliminary round and set up a final qualifier against Angola’s Primeiro De Agosto. And Hunt knows that it is goals that will see them home and dry.
“It will be important to try and score a few more goals, that’s something we are lacking. We have a couple of good strikers but they haven’t scored, and that’s a problem.

“Our final pass wasn’t good today, at the end the movement… but the pitch played a role in that. It was very difficult to play on.

“But the most important thing is we scored the away goal. We can’t relax though, it’s like it’s only half time. We still have a whole game to play.

“They have good fight in their team. They are a strong and physical team. But hopefully we will have enough to try and make it a little easier and safer when we play in Johannesburg.”

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