Little footage makes it tough for Sundowns

Even though Pitso Mosimane and his Mamelodi Sundowns have little footage of Libya’s Al Ahly Benghazi, he says he has become accustomed to the North African style of football as the Brazilians have faced a few similar opponents in the Caf Champions League.

The Brazilians will play the Libyans on Saturday on neutral territory in Egypt the first leg of their group stage qualifier (games cannot be played in Libya), and Mosimane says though they have little intelligence on Benghazi, he knows exactly what to expect.

“We know North African teams. The Egyptians, Moroccans, Algerian and Tunisia all have the same culture of football. They have the European influence, they are good on technique, they are organised teams and they have rigid structures,” said Mosimane.

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“We have to dig a little deeper, and if we don’t score, we have to sort it out at home because our style always gives the North Africans a little bit of a tough time because we just play differently, they don’t like people who dribble and all that,” Mosimane added.

Downs analyst Goolam Valdodia was despatched to gather video clips of Al Ahly, and Mosimane says his opponents are better prepared than Masandawana.

“It is difficult because we can’t get a lot of footage. We can’t get footage because a team has to be in a certain league that is shown on TV then they can upload their footage. They are not on TV so we can’t see anything.

“But we’ve sent our analyst and he got some footage the way we always get it. At least now we have a direction and sense to know what kind of a team they are.
“They are in good position because they are in camp, they are in a better position than us,” Mosimane added. The Libyan side camps together continuously because of the political situation in their home country.

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However, Mosimane says facing opponents that you know very little about comes with the territory of playing in the continent’s premium club competition.

“It is part of playing in the Champions League, we can’t complain. That is why winning the Champions League is a big thing, we have to dig deeper because the next moment you are on the flight and then you must come back and play immediately … it is good, there is nothing wrong with that.”

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