Champions League is important to Sundowns – Pitso

The Masandawana coach has always taken the Champions League very seriously, winning it with Sundowns in 2016 and reaching the quarterfinals last year, losing on penalties to eventual champions Wydad Casablanca.

“The Champions League is huge and important to us. It is not only for the club, it is for the country and it means a lot. It has changed our lives at Sundowns,” said Mosimane.

But as seriously as the Masandawana coach takes African competition, he is not stressing over defender Bangaly Soumahoro – who often stars in the heart of defence alongside Ricardo Nascimento. The Ivorian is expected to be on the sidelines for at least six weeks after he took a knock on his knee late last month.

Mosimane is banking on Wayne Arendse and Motjeka Madisha to partner Nascimento in marshalling the defence in Kigali.

“We lost Bangaly for six weeks, but Madisha is there, Wayne is there, so we’ll manage,” he said.

Of late, the one-time African Coach-of-the-Year has been rotating his team as he is vying for three titles – the Absa Premiership, the Nedbank Cup and the Champions League.

Last season the Brazilians finished the campaign empty-handed under Mosimane and he says he has learned from last season’s shortcomings.

“We will always rotate the players, even the players who are going to play in Rwanda, it is not going to be the same people. You will see Khama Billiat again, so we have to give chances to everyone,” Mosimane said.

“We are now in a marathon and on the battlefield, which includes a lot of travelling and all those mixed emotions of the chasing the league, the Nedbank Cup and the Champions League.

“We have been there in that space and when I reflect, we did not have the personnel to fight the three battle last year even though we had numbers. I think this year we are more prepared and we have more numbers. But having more numbers is not a solution, the solution is having a happy camp.”

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