Gavin Hunt highlights CAF importance as Stellies host CR Belouizdad

He was speaking ahead of their Confederation Cup clash against Algerian club CR Belouizdad at home tomorrow, having suffered a 2-0 loss away last week. 

Hunt says although the competition is expensive to participate in with all the travelling involved, they would like to go as far as possible yet again.

"Listen I enjoy CAF, I think it's important for South African players to go as far as possible. I know teams are obviously financially strained, it's a big strain on everybody, financial strain and obviously the travel strain because most of the teams draw with North African teams so most of the time we are travelling up there,” Hunt said. 

“But I mean it's good for the players, the mentality, the physicality, it's a totally different ball game from the PSL. If you just watched on Sunday, certainly in my opinion it could have been two, three red cards and about 10 yellow cards but there wasn't one. 

‘So, those types of things are different and it makes us tougher. I think the more we can compete in these tournaments, the better it is for our clubs and for our national team as a whole as well. So, it's important for us to try and put on a good performance tomorrow [Sunday] and get a good result, it's very important."

READ: Miguel Cardoso explains Al Hilal defeat backs quarterfinal push

Goalkeeper Sage Stephens also expressed disappointment with the result last week, and says they have addressed some of their issues from that match. 

He says they have to be a lot more physical and compete for every ball in order to get all three points and move to the top of Group C.

"No, obviously disappointed with the result, with the performance, looking of the recap of what we did yesterday. Coach reiterated that we weren't physical enough winning our duels and there's a lot of things that we can improve on as a squad but I think we just need to compete on all fronts,” Stephens said.

“The team, we have to bounce back, tomorrow [Sunday] is a big game for the team. We haven't been at our best lately so back to basics, working hard, competing, challenging for every ball and I think if we get that right all the performances will get a lot better, starting tomorrow [Sunday], we hopefully get it done tomorrow."