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Eymael: Komphela won't be playing on Saturday

Cape Town - Free State Stars head coach Luc Eymael says the Nedbank Cup semi-final against Kaizer Chiefs is purely about the players and not the coaches. 

Amakhosi mentor Steve Komphela is looking to guide his side to the Nedbank Cup final against either Maritzburg United or Mamelodi Sundowns.

To do that, his side will have to beat an Ea Lla Koto team he represented as both a player and a coach.

But standing in his way is a Stars side who have enjoyed a superb campaign under Eymael and are currently fifth on the table, just behind Chiefs; and there is widespread belief that the Belgium-born coach has been instrumental to Stars punching above their weight this season.

Eymael has however played down the significance of the battle between the two coaches this weekend.

"He [Komphela] is not playing, his career is finished in a matter of being a soccer player. And mine is finished since again [I've retired] for a longer time than him," he told KickOff website.

"So we are not playing you know. It's the two teams that are playing, it's not Eymael against Komphela or Komphela against Eymael. It's simply Kaizer Chiefs against Free State Stars."

Having missed the 1-0 league defeat against Chiefs in Bethlehem just a couple of weeks ago through suspension, Eymael is looking forward to being closer to the action when his side meet Chiefs at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.

"Yes, I will be on the bench. I was not too far from the bench the last time. But unfortunately we made more mistakes in the last minutes of the additional time, and it happens in football you know," he explained.

"But we were very unlucky during this game because I think we played very, very well against Chiefs and we deserved certainly a minimum one point."

Eymael has also been touted to replace Komphela next season as the current Chiefs mentor's contract expires at the end of June.

Free State Stars will have to KwaZulu-Natal for the semi-final clash as Amakhosi will host the match at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, April 21.

Kick-off is at 20:15.

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