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'When you saw the performance of these players you saw how much the players love this team,' said the Chiefs head coach.
Edmilson Dove was one of the Chiefs players Nasreddine Nabi said played through an injury. Picture: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi praised some of his players for battling through injury as they helped Amakhosi beat Mamelodi Sundowns and reach the Nedbank Cup final on Sunday.
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The Chiefs head coach revealed after the game that central defender Edmilson Dove and central midfielder Thabo Cele played through pain to help the team win 2-1 at Loftus Stadium.
Chiefs’ Nabi – ‘They did it for the fans’
“Before the game we didn’t want to discuss our injured players,” Nabi told the post match press conference.
“But we lost (Inacio) Miguel, and (Edmilson) Dove and Zitha (Kwinika) got injuries. Dove played (against Sundowns) with an injury, Zitha was on the bench with an injury. Thabo Cele also played with an injury.
“When you saw the performance of these players you saw how much the players love this team. They did it for the fans to make them proud.”
Chiefs trailed Sundowns 1-0 at the break, as Teboho Mokoena hammered in a free kick on the stroke of half time. But Nabi was happy enough with their first half performance, and was always hopeful they could turn the match around.
“It is a disaster to concede in the last minute of the first half or in the first minutes of the second half,” he said.
“But I thought we managed the game well in the first half, in terms of the fitness of Sundowns after their game against Esperance.
“We knew they would find a problem finishing strongly in the second half, and that was when we knew we could use other players to give us a solution. I said to the players (at half time) that I was proud of them and they did very well.
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‘No regrets’
“I was more than sure that today was our game and we would win. A big team like Chiefs can’t lose four times to Sundowns (in the same season). We only had 45 minutes to find a reaction and the most important thing was that we had no regrets.”
Wandile Duba levelled for Chiefs before Ashley Du Preez grabbed the winner just two minutes from time, to set up a final at Moses Mabhida Stadium against Orlando Pirates on May 10.
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