Andile Jali ready to take on some of Europe's best players

25 July 2017 - 14:35
By Mark Gleeson
Zambia's Brian Mwila (R) shoves South Africa's Andile Jali off the during the International friendly match at Moruleng Stadium on June 13, 2017 Moruleng, South Africa.
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images Zambia's Brian Mwila (R) shoves South Africa's Andile Jali off the during the International friendly match at Moruleng Stadium on June 13, 2017 Moruleng, South Africa.

Andile Jali is set to put the disappointment of last season behind him and feature in the KV Oostende starting line-up again as they make their debut in European club competition on Thursday away at French giants Olympique Marseille.

Jali had to play second fiddle over the last season and at one stage had let his weight balloon as he rarely featured in the team.

But a solid pre-season has Jali right back in the frame with coach Yves Vanderhaeghe expected to use the ex-Orlando Pirates midfield maestro much more in the coming campaign

The 27-year-old Bafana regular got a clear signal about his chances when he was used in the starting XI at the weekend in a friendly against another French club Lille.

On Thursday‚ Oostende are away at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille for their first game in the UEFA Europa League.

It is the same venue where Bafana lost 3-0 to France in the opening game of the 1998 World Cup.

The Belgian club have chartered a plane to take them to the south of France on Wednesday morning and were offering supporters a chance to fly along and stay at a five star hotel for a rather stiff cost of R10 000 per ticket.

The return match of the third round tie will be next week on Thursday‚ August 3‚ in Oostende.

They qualified after being beaten in last season’s Belgian Cup final‚ where Jali was an unused substitute. Oostende finished fifth in the regular season.

“We have music again in our team but we still have to see if the melody stays as long and consistently as it was last season‚” said Vanderhaeghe on Tuesday.

“We have lost some key players and it is not easy to replace them. That’s why I am chasing fifth pace again. Our aim is to win as many games as we can and improve the players‚ just as we did last season.”

- TimesLIVE