{"id":99145,"date":"2025-10-18T11:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=99145"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:29:15","slug":"you-will-not-see-africa-until-you-are-in-africa-zito-fires-up-kotoko-before-wydad-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=99145","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You will not see Africa until you are in Africa\u2019 \u2013 Zito fires up Kotoko before Wydad showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Asante Kotoko head coach Abdul Karim Zito is optimistic that his team can overcome heavyweights Wydad Casablanca and reach the CAF Confederation Cup group stage.<\/p>\n

The two sides will face off at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday, October 19, 2025, in the first leg of the second preliminary round, with the reverse fixture scheduled for a week later in Morocco.<\/p>\n

The winner over the two legs will advance to the group stage \u2014 a target Zito describes as the minimum they have set for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are definitely ready. We are going to wrap up tomorrow,\u201d Zito told Joy Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done all that we\u2019re supposed to do. We\u2019ve studied the game and then put into practice how I would like them to play on Sunday. I think we are all ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asante Kotoko head into the tie after overcoming Nigeria\u2019s Kwara United in the first preliminary round, winning 4\u20133 in Ghana and 1\u20130 in Abeokuta.<\/p>\n

Zito says if they beat the three-time African champions in Accra, \u201cit means I have another game to play in Morocco, and I have to plan well so that we will not concede over there, just as we did against Kwara.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the target we set for ourselves \u2014 that at least we should progress to the group stage, and then we have only Wydad to play against before we go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Asante Kotoko are to qualify, victory at home will be crucial, something Zito is well aware of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very important to us [to win in Accra] because I told them, you will not see Africa until you are in Africa. I cited an example that today, when you go to Dreams FC, everybody [players he reached the CAF Confederation Cup semi-final with] are gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this is the opportunity for them to exhibit their talent, and then, as we did on the field, for people to trust them so that they can go into the group stage, and we will do our best there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game kicks off at 15:00 GMT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\u2018YouAsante Kotoko head coach Abdul Karim Zito is optimistic that his team can overcome heavyweights Wydad Casablanca and reach the CAF Confederation Cup group stage. The two sides will face off at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday, October 19, 2025, in the first leg of the second preliminary round, with the reverse fixture scheduled [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6319,6320,1928,1942,137,5051,117,10,9,11,10749],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-26-caf-confederation-cup","category-abdul-karim-zito","category-adamu-benin-abdul-karim","category-asante-kotoko","category-football","category-hp-sports-1","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-sports","category-wydad-casablanca"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}