Head coach of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Sporting Club, Abdul Karim Zito, has stated that stopping Kwara United midfielder John Mark Shirsha Aule was a key point in his plan to beat the Nigerian team.

He said this in a post-game presser after Kotoko beat Kwara United 1-0 in Nigeria to progress to the second round of the CAF Confederation Cup.

Kotoko largely struggled defensively in Ghana to record a 4-3 win in the first leg but delivered a stout defensive performance in the return leg to progress via a 5-3 aggregate win.

Aside keeping it tight in defence, Karim Zito pointed to mapping out a plan to stop midfielder John Mark from dictating the pace of the game as a key component in his team’s win. “The plan was to stop him- John Mark- from playing and we were able to do that because he’s a good player.”

“If he was in Ghana, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a call up to the national team, I am telling you the truth.”

“He’s a key player so we had to plan against him so that he couldn’t play so we were tracking him throughout the game and he was substituted so we achieved our objective” Zito said.