Nabi: My Players Were Nervous Against Sundowns 

Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi says the reason why they lost their game against Mamelodi Sundowns is because his players were ‘nervous’ and were even struggling to combine passes.

Amakhosi lost 4-0 in the quarterfinal of the Carling Knockout against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday afternoon. 

It was the first time for both these two rivals to reach the quarterfinals of this competition as they lost in the Last 16 against AmaZulu and TS Galaxy last season. On their road to the quarterfinals this season, Amakhosi defeated SuperSport United while Sundowns won against the KZN-based side Golden Arrows at Lucas Moripe Stadium. Nabi revealed what went wrong last night that made them lose against the Brazilians at FNB Stadium. 

The Tunisian tactician believes that his players were ‘nervous’ but he will not criticize them in the media because that could kill their momentum. 

“The players were just not good enough today [Saturday],” Nabi said at the press conference. 

“The responsibility is mine as a coach. I’m going to take full responsibility for today’s game because I don’t want to criticize my players in front of the media. But I will do it inside, everyone will take responsibility. 

“But I believe that it’s true that they were far from the best of our performance. At the beginning of the game they were nervous, a lot of missed passes, a lot of balls lost, and so on.” 

The Phefeni Glamour Boys are now left with the league title as well as the Nedbank Cup only. As they are out in the Carling Knockout, they could not participate in the MTN8 as they didn’t finish in the top eight last season in the league. 

Nabi’s side will now return to the field on the 27 November against Richards Bay in a league game at Peter Mokaba Stadium. The last time Chiefs played against the Natal Rich Boys they lost 1-0 in April this year last season.