The equation is simple – the Bucs need to score against Etoile du Sahel to harbour any hopes of lifting the continental crown, and Tinkler feels confident his side are well-prepared to improve upon the areas which were lacking in last weekend’s 1-1 draw in Orlando.
“The preparations have been very good because we have sat with the players and done our post match analysis on Etoile and I think the boys now have a very good idea about what exactly they are coming up against after the first 90 minutes were played,” he said.
“We need to get the away goal and get the advantage back to us. In terms of their set-up, I don’t think it will be any different to what we saw on Saturday. We have to be a lot better in terms of defending set-pieces because we let ourselves down there.”
As much as their defensive display needs improvement, Tinkler knows it is at the other end of the pitch where they need to make it count.
“We looked at the post match analysis and saw the areas where we should have exploited them a lot better, and like I said, it is really when you are getting into that final third where we need to improve and that is something that we have focused on at training and in the analysis that we showed them,” he continued.
“Even though they do defend in numbers, there is ways of getting behind them like we did on a few occasions, though we didn’t capitalise.
“We have noticed that there are areas where they do have weaknesses that we didn’t exploit, and those are the areas that we focused on and have spoken to the players about how they are going to try and create those spaces for themselves, how they will try and create those spaces for others in order to be able to penetrate them,” he said.
Kick-off in Tunisia is set for 16:00 South African time.