Football: Caf Confederation Cup – St Michel v Motema Pembe   |15 October 2022

St Michel players during a training session in the Congo

Serenity reigns in St Michel camp  

An atmosphere of serenity reigns in the Saint Michel United camp as the team prepare to undertake what will probably be the toughest task in their history to date.

In Kinshasa tomorrow (Sunday October 16), they will attempt to become the first Seychelles team to make it to the second round of an African club competition.

They will take their slim 1-0 lead into the second preliminary round second leg tie against Congolese giants Daring Club Motema Pembe (DCMP) at the Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecôte in the RDC capital.

An aggregate victory over the Congolese over the two games will take St Michel into the group stage of the 2023 Confederation of African Football (Caf) Confederation Cup.

They achieved their first leg victory in Mauritius last Saturday with a lone 54th minute strike by Josip Ravignia, after walking over Inter Littoral Academy of Equatorial Guinea in the first leg.

The Equatorial Guineans did not turn up for their first leg preliminary round game last month and the African Football Confederation awarded St Michel overall victory which qualified them for the second preliminary round qualifiers.

The 26-member St Michel delegation arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo early on Thursday morning and have settled at the Hotel Royal, less than half an hour’s drive from the Stade des Martyrs.

With the Congolese claiming that there was no pitch available for training until the eve of the match, St Michel had to rent an Astroturf field at the William Booth University for Thursday’s and Friday’s training sessions.

A Congolese Football Federation representative explained that all the pitches under their jurisdiction had been prebooked for Francophonie activities over the two days and the only solution St Michel had was to go private at their own expense.

Today’s training is scheduled for the game’s venue. As per the Confederation of African Football (Caf) regulations, host countries are obliged to allow visiting teams to hold one training session on the same pitch and if possible, at the same time that the game is to be played, preferably on the eve of the match.

Sunday’s game will start at 3.30pm local time (6.30pm Seychelles time).

Hopes are high in the St Michel camp for a positive result even if they will be facing a hostile crowd and playing in a massive stadium with a capacity of 80,000 for international matches and 100,000 for national encounters.

According a Motema Pembe official, the club has a fan base of around 60,000 and most of them are expected to turn up to support their team.

To make it past St Michel, Motema Pembe will have to score twice or more and keep a clean sheet. Any goal scored by St Michel will be in the Seychelles team’s advantage if the match ends in a draw as the away goals rule will apply.

St Michel’s coach Ralph Jean-Louis is keeping his cool and believes his players will give a good account of themselves.

“It will be the first time that most of them will be playing in front of a large and hostile crowd, but I think they have understood that they should concentrate on their game and not let the crowd intimidate them,” he said.

“I have asked them to play with the same composure that they did in the ‘home’ game and do their best not to concede,” he explained.

He added that having seen the Congolese in action last Saturday, he believed they could be surmounted if everything went according to plan and the strategy that would be applied worked.

As for St Michel manager Michael Delpech, he said it took 28 years for his team to reach that stage in an African competition.

“I think that if we do make it to the group stage, it will change the face of football in Seychelles. Local teams will see that it can be done, and this will inspire them to perform better,” he said.

Caf has named a quartet from Central Africa to officiate the match, with the commissioner coming from Gabon.

André Onesime Kolissala Mbangui will be the referee with Jospin Luckner Malonga and  Steavens Bissaolo Roth-Pepin as assistant referees. Merveil Milvin Melvin Mandekouzou-Vendafara will be the fourth referee.

N’Gwa Emane is the commissioner and Gisèle Diema Bapumbudia the Covid-19 officer.

Contributed