Mosimane plays it cool as Ahly face Sundowns yet again

Pitso Mosimane is keen to take the emotion out of his latest return to South Africa with Al Ahly, as they take on his former side Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday in the Caf Champions League.

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Mosimane’s last visit to play Masandawana saw Ahly’s team bus surrounded by fans hurling abuse at ‘Jingles’ as it made its way into the Lucas Moripe Stadium.

The man who won a hatful of trophies at Choorklop was understandably unimpressed, and one hopes there will not be a repeat in the Group A match at FNB Stadium.

Masandawana have a slight upper-hand over the defending champions after beating them 1-0 in the reverse fixture in Cairo,.

Mosimane knows what’s at stake, as a win for the Brazilians will secure a path to the quarterfinals and ion pole position to win Group A.

“We are expected to win the Champions League because we won it back-to-back and that is a lot of pressure for us. There is also pressure for Sundowns because they have not won it in six years,” said Mosimane on Friday.

“At our level and with the experience that we have, it is not about outsmarting Rhulani Mokwena, Manqoba Mngqithi or Steve Komphela, I have huge respect for them. The game is much bigger than the four of us, it has nothing to do with us as coaches, we are just directing the game. In my career, I am not at a stage where I am competing with anyone.

“We are going to approach the game very carefully and we will not be too emotional about it (but) we should not be careless.

“The objective is to qualify for the next round and the question is, how do we navigate at this point? It is simple, we have to win the match because we dropped points at home. We want to win because we believe we can win against Sundowns and if we do, we will have the same number of points as Sundowns – it would be very nice to be in that position,” the Al-Ahly mentor added.

Mosimane’s opposite number Manqoba Mngqithi, loves that the visitors are desperate for maximum points to get their campaign back on track.

“One thing that I like is the anger and the vengeance to try and come back with a bang. That makes for a very good game of football because you do not want to play a match where one team is sitting in,” said Mngqithi.

“They are here to look for a result and when you come to us with that mentality, we like it because it makes for a good game where it can go either way. We are also optimistic that we have what it takes to upset them. The competition is going to be intense and we like it this way – this is how football should be played.”