Nabi blames nerves as Chiefs stumble to Richards Bay defeat

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nadreddine Nabi claimed nerves played a role as Amakhosi slumped to a 2-0 Betway Premiership loss to Richards Bay on Sunday at the King Zwelithini Stadium. 

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The loss was a miserable way for Amakhosi to go into the international break, and was the ninth defeat Nabi’s side have suffered in the Premiership this season. 

Chiefs in danger

Amakhosi have made it into the Nedbank Cup semifinals, but their league form leaves them in danger of missing out on a place in the MTN8 for the second season in a row. 

Chiefs had a few opportunities in the opening half, with striker Ashley Du Preez guilty of missing the best of those. He placed a free header far too close to Richards Bay goalkeeper Salim Magoola. 

Richards Bay came out with more intent after the break and Fizzle Gcaba’s 48th minute strike put them in front, before Yanela Mbuthuma effectively killed the game off in the 72nd minute. 

“I would say in the first half we controlled the game,” Nabi told SuperSport TV after the match.

“We had some opportunities to score. We didn’t come out well in the second half … conceded within five minutes from a set piece.

After that we were too nervous. We wanted to come back in the game and score. But we didn’t do the right things. We probably lack a striker that can deal with all the crosses we made. 

“But we have to give credit to Richards Bay. They fought very hard, even when they were tired, they kept believing.” 

Richards Bay head coach Papi Zothwane explained how his side made a tactical tweak in the second half to change the game. 

‘A great second half’

“It was a good game, I think Chiefs pushed us in the first half,” said Zothwane. 

“It was a bit difficult to deal with their overloads on the side. We had to adjust and give them respect. One thing we were happy about is that we didn’t concede in the first half. 

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“In the second half we had our turn. We asked our eight to go wide and stop the overloads. We also had our wingers get closer to our striker and it worked well. On transition we were a bit better. We had a great second half.”