Steve Barker is hoping to pick up where the team left off last season when Stellenbosch FC get their 2025-26 CAF Confederation Cup campaign underway this weekend.

Last season’s semi-finalists, Stellies have departed for Equatorial Guinea where the team from the Cape Winelands are set to take on 15 de Agosto de Akonibe in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup 2nd Preliminary Round on Saturday.

“We are extremely excited to begin our CAF campaign,” Barker said ahead of the encounter. “We had a good experience last season, so we’re looking forward to what lies ahead.

“There are a lot of lessons that needed to be learned from last time around. The travelling and logistics are not easy, but we have to embrace it and see it as a privilege that we are able to visit different countries on our continent.

“We also learned that refereeing on the continent is slightly different, but the biggest lesson came from playing against different types of opposition with different styles of play.

“That’s one of the exciting parts about it – playing against players and teams that you don’t often play against – and that excites us as the coaching staff and the players.

“Once you’ve reached the semi-final stage of the competition, like we did last year, you don’t want to take a step backward, so that’s also the sort of stage of the tournament we want to be reaching.

“We fell one hurdle short of playing in a continental final, but now we have to start taking it just one step at a time again. Our first priority is getting into the Group Stage, and that’s our main focus for this match, and then we’ll take it from there.”

Stellies’ opponents overcame the challenge of Seychelois side Foresters FC in the First Preliminary Round and Barker reveals that he and his technical team have gained valuable insight from that two-legged tie.

“We watched the matches that they played against the team from Seychelles to get to this stage, and we’ve analyzed that and looked into the type of team they are, and the formation and style that they play with,” he added.

“It’s not easy based on just one or two games, but we’ve done sufficient analysis that we feel we can prepare adequately. In these encounters, it’s also often important for us to play the way we want to play and concentrate on our own strengths.”

Stellenbosch are one of four South African teams representing the country on the continent this season, alongside fellow Confed Cup contenders Kaizer Chiefs, and Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns of Champions League ilk.

In those four teams, and with Bafana Bafana’s recent successes, Barker believes that South African football is in a good space in comparison to the country’s continental competition.

“South Africa has shown that we are footballing force to be reckoned with on the continent,” he concluded. “You can look at the progress Sundowns and Pirates made in last season’s Champions League, and us getting into the semi-final of the Confederation Cup.

“Our national team has qualified for the FIFA World Cup, and our U-20s did us proud by reaching the knockout stages of their World Cup, so I think we are in a good and healthy space as a country.

“That’s also why, when we play in these continental matches, we go in with the mindset that we’re not only representing Stellenbosch, but that we are representing South Africa as well.”

The CAF Confederation Cup 2nd Preliminary Round 1st leg tie between 15 de Agosto de Akonibe and Stellenbosch is scheduled for 16h00 (SAST) and will be played at the Estadio de Ebibeyin.