Basit miserable over miss
by Gary Al-Smith 21 August 2012, 10:51
Chelsea captain Abdul Basit and his teammates are unhappy about their inability to win against Al Ahly. Basit is particularly gutted about his own miss from three yards at a time of the second half when the game could have been won.
The Blues now have it all to do with games in Cairo and a home tie later in the offing. Basit expressed his disappointment at not taking home advantage.
"I am disappointed. This is the moment we should have won to show that we can go to the next stage," he told SuperSport,com on Monday.
"Ahly are African championss and have played for a long time so they are so united and operate as a unit. They had the better defense [on Sunday]," the skipper said, continuing in hope that his team can unlock the two remaining games in their debut African season.
"[The two coming games] will be tough, but this is football and you should be ready for any upsets or surprises. I’m very hopeful we’re going into the final and we’ll achieve this with a lot of hard work on our part," he added.
One of Chelsea's better players on Sunday was Solomon Asante, who waltzed through Ahly's two banks of four impressively. But even he believes that despite his side hitting the bar and missing great chances, nothing could be ascribed to bad luck.
"It was not bad luck. We played very well but we should have taken our chances. Ahly is not a small club and in football you can have three outcomes. Today we drew, and that is that," he said after the game.
Chelsea next play Zamalek in Cairo on the weekend of September 1-2, after which they host Mazembe in Ghana. It is now imperative that they win both games for any chance of advancing into the semis of the continent's elite club event.
