Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker is looking forward to getting the CAF Confederation Cup Group Stage underway when his side takes on AS Otohô this weekend.

Stellenbosch FC will kick off their 2025-26 CAF Confederation Cup Group Stage campaign on Sunday afternoon when the Club hosts Congolese side AS Otohô at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.

“It’s very exciting to get our CAF Confederation Cup campaign underway,” Stellies head coach Steve Barker said ahead of the clash.

“…Everybody is raring to go and we’re looking forward to hosting our opposition AS Otohô, and to getting off to a good start by winning this home match because I think that will also be key in this competition.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm, and we’ve had a good preparation period during the FIFA break. We were able to work on improving a lot of things, which we can hopefully apply this coming Sunday.”

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The encounter will be played in Limpopo due to the unavailability of stadia in Cape Town, but Barker believes his side is equipped to deal with the challenge after facing similar trials last season.

“I think travelling around last season has prepared us for it a bit this season,” he said. “We do know of the challenges we sometimes have with the stadiums in Cape Town and in needing to play some of these games away from home.

“New Peter Mokaba Stadium has, in my opinion, one of the best surfaces in the country, and we’ve played there a few times this season, so we know the stadium and have to take that as a positive thing.

“We are still playing in our home country in South Africa, and it’s not only Stellenbosch that we play for; we also want to make South Africa proud. So, no matter where we play, we have to go and be positive and make sure we get the home wins.”

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The Maroons will face six-time Congo Ligue 1 champions AS Otohô, who are making their third appearance in the Group Stage of the CAF Confederation Cup.

“We’ve done our analysis and studied them,” Barker added. “They have a number of players in their national team, and they’ve earned the right to be in this competition, so we have a healthy respect for them.

“The analysis shows that they’ve got some really good individual players and that they’re a strong and physical team, so we have to be at our best and make sure we execute our game plan and ensure that we play to our strengths.”

Sunday’s clash comes on the back of the international break and marks the start of a stretch of three matches in nine days, with Stellenbosch also facing Orbit College in the league on Wednesday, and Singida Black Stars the following weekend.

“The break was very much needed, especially when you consider we also played six matches in 18 days before that, with a lot of travelling involved,” Barker said.

“It was good to get back on the training ground and work with the team and look to rectify some of the areas where we’ve needed to be better at.

“It was a good opportunity for us to refresh and regenerate, but at the same time to put in those hard training sessions and work to create on creating opportunities going forward and being more compact defensively.

“It has been a really good week and a half that we’ve had, with some days still left for us to continue our preparations.”

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He added, “The important part is to take each competition on its own.

“The Betway Premiership is the most important; it’s our bread and butter, so there’s a high level of focus in terms of preparing the team for our last two fixtures of the year. Our current log position is also something that we want to improve on.

“The CAF Confederation Cup is a separate competition altogether and entails playing in different countries. For us, it’s about playing in one competition at a time and focusing on one game at a time, and ensuring that we give our best in each of them.

“Similar to last season, we’re going to take it each game and each stage at a time. We got through the preliminaries to get into the Group Stage, and before we go ahead and look at the knockouts, we have to get through this stage.

“We play each team twice, home and away, so right now the objective is to finish in the top two in our group and qualify for the knockout stage. Once we do that, we’ll take it one game at a time again.”

The CAF Confederation Cup Group C encounter between Stellenbosch FC is scheduled to kick off at 15h00 on Sunday, 23 November at New Peter Mokaba Stadium. Tickets are available for R40 from Webtickets and the match will be broadcast live on SABC 1.