Nasreddine Nabi laments Kaizer Chiefs’ collapse after letting two-goal lead slip against Royal AM

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi was not happy with his team’s performance after they let a two-goal lead slip and were held 2-2 by Royal AM in Polokwane on Saturday night.

In the first 45 minutes, Chiefs looked a different class to Thwihli Thwahla as they completely dominated proceedings and raced into a 2-0 lead. They could have killed off the tie in the first half, but they did not take their opportunities.

After the break, the game flipped on its head, and Chiefs looked second best. After pulling a goal back early, Royal AM eventually scored an equaliser with the last kick of the game to steal a point.

A win would have seen Chiefs move up to third, but they remained in sixth.

Speaking after the game, Nabi expressed his disappointment that they were not able to close off the game and take all three points.

“I think the problem is not tactically because you control 70% or 80% of the game,” said the Tunisian tactician after the game. “Like today, the opponents start again from half-time good, but immediately we change the positives, and we take more control of the game. We take more control of the game.

“The problem is that if you lose too many opportunities, you give confidence to the opponents.

“And this is a repeat. For that, we talk, we talk, but the problem is in the roots. The problem is in the roots because it’s not like you say, it’s not [something that started] today or yesterday.

“But what do we need? What do we want? We need more opportunities, maybe more mentally, like in the field. In the field, I think we create too many opportunities, and we control the game.

“Okay, some mistakes in defence, bad decisions offensively, yes. But you don’t have another solution; you continue to take more, more, more.”

IOL Sport