Stellenbosch FC can’t go to Cairo fearing the crowd, says Steve Barker after Zamalek draw

STELLENBOSCH FC coach Steve Barker feels "the pressure shifts to Zamalek" after his team earned a well-deserved goalless draw in their first-leg CAF Confederation Cup quarter-final at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

In what has been a glorious couple of days for South African club football, after Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates earned victories in the CAF Champions League, Stellenbosch also showed they deserve a place at the dining table of the continent's elite football clubs by holding the Egyptian giants scoreless.

Barker's charges now head to the tip of North Africa with a genuine chance of advancing to a first-ever continental semi-final in next Wednesday's second leg.

"The main objective was always to go to Cairo having a chance," Barker said after the first-leg stalemate.

"We didn't want to go sort of dead and buried.

"I think, not conceding the away goal, I believe the pressure shifts to Zamalek.

"I think with good preparation, now we know what we know, good analysis, and come up with a really good game plan to get it.