Goran confident Police will go past LLA

Police FC head coach Goran Kuponovic insists his team has higher chances of eliminating Lydia Ludic Academic and progress to the first round of the 2013 Africa Confederation Cup.

Monday, February 18, 2013
Goran Kopunovic believes Police FC will get the result they require to progress to the next round. The New Times / T. Kisambira

Police FC head coach Goran Kuponovic insists his team has higher chances of eliminating Lydia Ludic Academic and progress to the first round of the 2013 Africa Confederation Cup.Debutants Police lost 1-0 in the first leg in Bujumbura on Sunday and face a big hurdle in the second leg due in Kigali on March 2, but Goran remains confident.Lydia Ludic Academic got their early goal in the first half but despite Police dominating possession for the bigger part of the game, it failed to equalise."It isn’t too complicated to play with just a goal down,” Goran said, before adding, "We need to score in the return leg and I’m confident we will, but we know how difficult it is going to be.”He added, "We know LLA is a good side and will create chances and try to score goals but we have to try to score more than they do. Of course we also have to try and limit the chances they create.”"I always talk about the collective performance that helps us defend as a team and every individual has to do their job,” Goran continued. "But I am very pleased with the way our defenders have been playing lately. We have defended very well.”The Serb tactician, whose team is second on the national league table, blamed the referee for denying his team what he described as "very clear penalty calls.”"The referee didn’t give us two clear penalties but that’s history, we are going to prepare ourselves and I am optimistic for the second leg, we will play at home in front of our fans so I hope we will do better because we played good football even if we didn’t score goals,” he noted.  The team returned last night.It was a miserable weekend for Rwandan teams in the CAF competitions with the league champions APR FC also losing 1-2 at home to Burundian champions Vital’O on Saturday.