Hearts of Oak’s assistant coach, David Ocloo, is confident the Phobians can overturn the 3-0 defeat in the first leg of their CAF Confederation Cup qualifying game against Malian side AS Real Bamako.

Hearts of Oak will host the return leg on 15th October, 2022 at the Accra Sports Stadium where they must win by a 4-goal margin to stand any chance of qualifying to the group stages of CAF’s second tier inter-club competition.

In the absence of a substantive head coach, Ocloo will be in charge of the game, having also taken charge of the first leg, only four days after he was announced assistant coach.

This is a no-match. I can confidently say we can turn this around. We played well. We created a lot of chances but no clinical. We are going to right the wrongs. They are beatable,” he said.

Since winning the inaugural edition of the CAF Confederation Cup in 2004, Hearts of Oak have failed to qualify for the group stages, despite previously playing in the qualifying series in 2016 and 2021.