WE KNOW ‘BIRDS’ ARE STRONG – MC ALGER

MATSAPHA – They are tall, well built and an established team since 1921 but Algeria’s MC Alger are not taking their rivals Mbabane Swallows in the Total CAF Confederation Group B game on Friday afternoon any lightly.

It is all happening as of 3pm on Friday at the tiny Somhlolo National Stadium. The visiting team touched down on Swazi soil yesterday through the Matsapha Airport at around noon in a chartered plane. They are booked at the Royal Swazi Sun Hotel in Ezulwini.

It was easy to tell they have height advantage, which will mean Swallows could be forced to play the ball more on the ground to beat them. Their coach Kamel Mouassa, who is French-speaking like most of the team, showed a lot of respect for Umkhonto KaShaka when he addressed the local media.

“Truth is we’re not okay right now as a team but we’re here for positive results as we believe we have the capability and energy for it. Yes, we know about Swallows as we saw the Sfaxien match and they are a good and very strong team we cannot undermine but play seriously to get anything. We respect them as they deserve to be here,” he said, referring to the internal problems including players not having paid salaries as reported over the weekend. Mouassa said CS Sfaxien of Tunisia, who beat Swallows 1-0, were also a big team in the continent and the way Swallows played away showed they deserved to be in this tournament.

“We know Swallows just won the league championship, which is another sign they are a strong side and they will obviously have the home crowd behind them. We still believe in our abilities to get the positive results and we are also here to give Swazis some feel of our game in  Algeria so they will watch a very good game,” he said.

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