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Komphela: We needed to be smart

Cape Town - Kaizer Chiefs head coach Steve Komphela has admitted their defensive approach against Cape Town City was "deliberate" after claiming a 2-0 victory on Wednesday night.

Veteran Siphiwe Tshabalala and 17-year-old Wiseman Meyiwa were on target for Amakhosi at Cape Town Stadium in front of a pleasing crowd of just over 25 000.

Komphela's tactical approach frustrated the Citizens as Chiefs' back four, including man-of-the-match Itumeleng Khune, produced a disciplined performance.

City coach Benni McCarthy was well aware of the script Chiefs implemented throughout the 90 minutes and admitted that he learned a valuable lesson in his first defeat at the helm.

Meanwhile, Komphela was honest in his post-match press conference and admitted that they needed to be smart in the way they played as Amakhosi had a lengthy injury list with all of Ramahlwe Mphahlele, Tsepo Masilela, Emmanuel Letlotlo, Teenage Hadebe, Sibusiso Khumalo and Ryan Moon sidelined with long-term injuries.

"There are two ways in football,” the 50-year-old said.

"Whether you give the initiative or you take it, and we opted to give the initiative for obvious reasons. If you take the initiative, you’re too expansive; you're creating too big distances for the players.

"Your wingbacks (will) have to keep bombing forward (and) the amount of kilometres they clock is going to go higher. You need to handle a lot if you’re playing too honest of a game; we needed to be smart today."

Komphela continued: "But it still paid (off) because we didn't only sit there like most of our colleagues would say and 'park the bus'. We came out nicely and played. Maybe you expected Chiefs to be more dictating, to be more on the ball and all of that. But when you are more on the ball... look at the results, look at Bidvest (Wits), look at Arrows, you can even look at the Champions League. Look at the ones that had the lesser possession, they seem to be heading.

"So it's the initiative - take it or give it. And we decided to give the initiative a bit today, and we knew coming into the match... I didn't check the possession stats, that we might slightly drop from what we normally do. But it was deliberate."

Chiefs' next opponents are champions Wits on Saturday, September 16.

Kick-off is at 18:00.

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