Herentals FC (0) (2)
TelOne FC. (1) 1
TelOne Football Club coach Herbert Maruwa suffered a defeat on his return to Harare after his team lost to Herentals FC at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.
Herentals fought back from a one-goal deficit at halftime to win the match.
TelOne started the game strongly and took the lead in the 15th minute through Fradrick Muza, who was assisted by Kudzai Jaison.
However, Herentals came out stronger in the second half and scored two quick goals. The first came from a header by captain Tino Benza, and the second from a shot by Blessing Phiri.
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This was Maruwa's second match in charge of TelOne, after his first game against Chicken Inn ended in a draw. Maruwa was appointed coach of TelOne after Tendai Chikuni was fired.
Maruwa joined TelOne from Harare City, where he had led the team to an unbeaten start in the Division One league, winning six games and drawing one.
He had previously been fired by Dynamos in August 2023 after only seven months in charge.
Herentals went into the match after a draw with Simba Bhora and were sitting in 12th position in the league.
Addressing the media in his post match interview, Paul Benza, the students' coach hyped praise on his team's depth, following Tino Benza's first goal of the season.
"I'm very happy about the outcome and it shows that we have depth. We have a new player scoring every match and I'm happy that Tino finally scored today after many assists.
"I'm happy he (Tino Benza) managed to play for that long because he came into the match with a knock and we never thought he would withstand the pressure and time he played," he said.
Maruwa beamoned his team's lack of fitness and concentration.
"I give credit to the lads, they managed to score in the first half. In the second half we went to sleep and that's when they capitalised and came back.
"We need to work on the level of fitness and concentration going into the next games," he said.
At Sakubva Stadium defending champions Ngezi Platinum Stars continued their revival after they beat Bikita Minerals 2-0 to bag their third consecutive win.
Takunda Benhura gave the champions a sixth minute lead before Moses Demera doubled the scores in the second half.
The win saw Ngezi Platinum move into sixth place ahead of today's matches.
In Kariba, a Leeroy Murape goal helped hosts ZPC Kariba beat Yadah FC 1-0.