Benni McCarthy is now targeting six points in AmaZulu FC's remaining three Caf Champions League Group B matches. This is as McCarthy's team continues to push for the quarterfinals and looks on course at the halfway mark as it remains in second spot behind Morocco's Raja Casablanca. 

Luvuyo Memela's solitary goal, his second winner in two successive home matches, gave Usuthu victory over Algeria's ES Setif at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Friday and kept the Durban outfit on course for a surprise entrance in the competition's last 8. 

Usuthu are making their debut in the Champions League and McCarthy has not hidden his desire to emulate what Kaizer Chiefs did last year. Amakhosi finished as runners-up to Pitso Mosimane's Al Ahly despite the fact it was the first time they had made it to the competition's group stages.

McCarthy feels AmaZulu can do even better than what Chiefs did. He thinks Usuthu need six points to qualify for the knockout stages and he says this despite the frustration of seeing his team not scoring as many goals in their matches. 

“That's my only biggest worry,” the former Bafana Bafana striker said of the missed chances in Friday's game, a day he described as “very special” as he was also celebrating his daughter's 17th birthday. 

“The first chance (by striker Augustine Mulenga) I don't even want to go there. I was busy writing something down and I just saw people jumping up and down. When I looked up on the screen ... it was a bad mistake because I look at Mulenga in a completely different way. We made things very difficult for ourselves.”

The Usuthu coach has said he would be more worried if they were not creating the openings, though some of the misses, especially the ones in the opening game they lost 1-0 away to Casablanca, may come back to haunt them. 

Trips to Setif (March 11) and Guinean club Horoya (April 1) that are sandwiched by a home fixture against Casablanca (March 18), will be key to McCarthy's team's progression to the quarterfinals.

Horoya may have lost their first three matches, including a 1-0 away defeat to Casablanca on Friday, but can still qualify if they win the remaining ties. It is Setif, the two-time former winners, who'll  look to overtake Usuthu in second place. Setif are really not out of the race after winning their opening encounter against Horoya.

“It is tough when you go away from home,” McCarthy acknowledged. “But if we take the chances that we get it's fairly easy (to win). It's not too difficult to play in Africa but when you are away, the travelling and conditions make it very difficult to play your usual game.”

It is because of that McCarthy agreed that as much as he's looking for six points, he will be satisfied with four as long as it's enough to take them to the next round.

Putting the next round beyond what McCarthy's team can attain is difficult given what they've already managed to do.