AmaZulu coach Arthur Zwane says his side will have to redeem themselves when they host champions Orlando Pirates in midweek after they were bundled out of the MTN8 by Sekhukhune United at home on Sunday.
AmaZulu took an early lead in the quarterfinal tie in Chatsworth but were beaten 4-3 and must now pick themselves up for their second Betway Premiership game of the season when they host the Buccaneers at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday.
“Now we have Pirates, we've got to redeem ourselves,” Zwane said after the chastising loss.
“It's not going to be an easy one, and we’re playing against a Pirates team that won at the weekend.
“So we've got to make sure that now the players do the right things in terms of recovery, and they eat well and drink a lot of water, so that they can be fully recovered when the time comes.”
Zwane said he was at a loss to explain how his side lost on Sunday.
“We conceded four goals. It's unlike us. We are not a team that does that easily, you know, conceding goals like this. And yeah, hopefully we will learn from this one and rectify those mistakes.”
The coach said no blame could be laid at the feet of Wilfrid Kouassi, the club’s new goalkeeper whose debut saw him pick the ball out of his own net four times.
“Look, this is one game where we can't blame the goalkeeper. You know, it's just pure decision-making and poor defending. We could have done better in defending. So it was a chain of mistakes starting with the midfielders for the first (Sekhukhune) goal.
"And if you look at all the goals that we conceded, we could have done better in terms of defending and with lapses of concentration, then you end up with four goals. But hopefully we'll come back to a better team next game,” Zwane added.