Peter Shalulile celebrates scoring the opening goal for Sundowns in Algiers. Rulani Mokwena's side won the first leg 4-1. Picture: Djaffar Lakjal/BackpagePix.
Rulani Mokwena says Mamelodi Sundowns must keep their cool, despite going a long way towards the Caf Champions League semifinals with a 4-1 hammering of CR Belouizdad in Algiers on Saturday night.
A brace from Peter Shalulile and strikes from Neo Maema and Cassius Mailula gave Masandawana a huge advantage for the second leg of the quarterfinal on Saturday at Loftus Stadium. It was a rousing away performance from Sundowns, and a brilliant way to bounce back from some poor domestic form, which saw them eliminated from the Nedbank Cup.
“Our feet are firmly on the ground. This is only half time,” warned Mokwena at the post match press conference, however.
In response to a question about this tie potentially already being all over, Mokwena added: “Stranger things have happened in football, we must have a lot of humility. We beat a very good side but we still have to face very good side in Pretoria, a side with a top coach and top players.”
Mokwena did praise his players for their “big personality and performance” in a game in which they stormed into a 2-0 lead early on, Shalulile opening the scoring before Maema added another from a brilliant passing move.
Belouizdad pulled one back in first half stoppage time, but Sundowns continued to dominate after the break and Shalulile put them 3-1 up before Mailula came off the bench to put a real gloss on the scoreline.
Mokwena believes the game was difficult for Sundowns despite the lop-sided result.
“This is the quarterfinals of the Champions League, it was tough. We are under no illusions, the scoreline does not represent how physical and demanding this game was for us.
“We did a lot of work on the opposition … and put in a lot of hours to make sure our performance was good. And we beat a very good side, with a lot of Algerian internationals. (Alexis) Guendouz, (Zakaria) Draoui, (Youcef) Laouafi (Mokhtar) Belkhiter, these are all players who play for the Algerian national team. So congratulations again have to go to our players.”
Sundowns will, nevertheless, surely be confident of completing the job in Tshwane, and making it to the semifinals for the first time since 2019, having been knocked out at the quarterfinal stage in the past three editions of the competition.
If Sundowns do make it through they will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Simba SC of Tanzania and Wydad Casablanca from Morocco. It was Wydad who knocked Sundowns out in the semifinals in 2019, but they will have to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the quarterfinal first leg against Simba. Congolese striker Jean Othos got the only goal of the game in Dar Es Salaam on Saturday.
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