'Home pressure affecting Hearts’

Hearts of Oak coach Herbert Addo says he is more focused on away games to make qualification in the Caf Confederation Cup easier.

The veteran coach saw his side lose by a lone goal at home to their Mali opponents, but the Phobians advanced to the playoffs round of the competition on the away goal rule. They had won the first leg 2-1 in Bamako a fortnight ago.

“In this Confederation Cup, I’m more concerned about qualifying, we need to score – especially away. If you are able to win away, it makes the job easier. If we had not won at Mali, the job would have been very difficult today,” he said.

The Phobians have scored three goals at home in their campaign this season. Coach Addo has attributed his side’s youthfulness as part of major reasons for their not too impressive home record – citing that they seem to buckle under pressure from home fans at the Accra Stadium.

“There are a lot of factors at home,” he opened.

“The pressure is there, the supporters want, I want, the players want to win and if the goal is not coming, there is pressure from all angles. And some of these players are very young, look at [our outfield players], with the exception of Fiamenyo, the team is very young,” Addo explained.

Hearts of Oak are joined by seven other clubs in the Confederation Cup set to be paired against eight other clubs who got eliminated from the Caf Champions League over the weekend.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has confirmed that a draw for the playoffs round will be held in Cairo at 11am CAT (9am GMT) today.