Zamalek coach José Peseiro says the African Confederation Cup holders have no intention of sitting back and playing for the draw when they face Stellenbosch at the Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday in the first leg of their quarterfinal tie.
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Instead Peseiro, who took charge of the Egyptian giants in February, believes the Cairo club need to play for a win, even if they still have the home leg to come in the Egyptian capital next Wednesday, April 9.
“Everybody says it's better to play away first than to play at home,” the Portuguese-born coach, who took Nigeria to the final of last year’s Africa Cup of Nations, told the pre-match press conference.
“I think it's the same […] But away or home, we need to [win]. Everybody prefers to play the second match at home. We need to [get] a good result in the first match,” he said.
Zamalek are chasing success in the competition for a third time, hoping to draw level with Tunisian club CS Sfaxien for most titles in Confederation Cup history.
“We want to do it. But following this competition, first of all, we need to concentrate our focus and our focus is this match tomorrow. Because as you can see, it's a hard match, a tough match.”
Peserio had plenty of praise for Stellenbosch, making their debut in continental club competition and through to the last eight at the first attempt.
“It's a good team […] Very good character, very good character. Congratulations for the coach. They fight, they fight, they fight. Second is the key point. This team has good players, of course. For that, we need to put all the focus on the quarterfinals, in this match, More than thinking about the trophies,” he said.
“I think Stellenbosch is one team that has grown up a lot in the last years; showed good quality, good organisation, good capacity, good coach, good players.
Even they show good character on the pitch, character of the fighter. Sure they believe they can go all the way, like us,” Peseiro added.