Stellenbosch’s 5-0 loss in the African Confederation Cup on Sunday was a learning curve for the club said coach Steve Barker, whose side suffered their heaviest defeat in club history.

Barker played a second-string lineup for the final game in group B as both clubs had already qualified and Berkane had already made sure of top place in the standings.

“It’s not easy to accept a 5-0 loss but I obviously told the team and players that these types of games are learning curves. As everybody knows, it is our first time playing in the Confederation Cup and our first time playing in north Africa and playing against a team like Berkane was always going to be difficult for us,” said the Stellenbosch coach.

“One has to learn from these situations, one has to improve from these situations and one has to grow from these situations. We have an important league game on Thursday (against AmaZulu) and then a cup match (against Kruger United on Tuesday, 28 January) so we played a lot of our players who haven’t been playing regularly against Berkane. We had six players aged under-23 on the pitch and so it was an opportunity for them to play and I’m sure also that they’ve learnt a lot from it,” he added.

“But you could see the quality of Berkane. They were very clinical, had good quality right across the pitch and that’s why they topped the long. We are happy to continue the tournaments and if we are back here in May (for the final) it won’t be 5-0, it will be a lot tighter.”

We keep moving forward 👊🌍 pic.twitter.com/ZxCpf5eMBm

— Stellenbosch FC (@StellenboschFC) January 20, 2025