Nine-man Sundowns go down to Raja in fiery encounter

Mamelodi Sundowns suffered their first defeat of the CAF Champions League group stage campaign following the 1-0 defeat to Raja Casablanca in an ill-tempered match on Saturday night. 

The game had three red cards with Bathusi Aubaas and Khuliso Mudau sent off for Sundowns.

Meanwhile, Marouane Zila was also sent for an early shower for a dangerous tackle on Aubrey Modiba with 10 minutes left to play in the fiery encounter.

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Benaissa Benamar scored the only goal of the match to settle the encounter between the two giants of African football. 

The result means that Sundowns remain second in Group B behind leaders AS FAR who recorded a 2-0 win over AS Maniema Union in the other match. It was Miguel Cardoso’s first loss in charge of the Sundowns after a run of four wins before the trip to Morocco.

The Brazilians played for the majority of the match with a man down after Bathusi Aubaas was shown a straight red card five minute before the break. It didn’t take long for Casablanca to make their numerical advantage count after Aubaas’ red card with defender Benaissa Benamar giving the home team the lead on the stroke of half time. 

The home team didn’t give their visitors a moment’s rest from the first whistle as they looked to grab an early lead in front of the packed Stade Larbi Zaouli. Casablanca pressed high and forced the Sundowns defence into mistakes but they couldn’t capitalise on them. 

Casablanca knew they couldn’t afford to drop more points in the group after a winless run of three matches. The crowd played their part too and used every trick in the book to unsettle the South African champions with laser beams pointed at Downs goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. 

It’s an old unsportsmanlike tactic that is commonly used in North Africa. It didn’t stop there as firecrackers were also thrown onto the pitch whenever Sundowns won a corner kick on the opposite end of the pitch.

Rayners had the ball in the back of the net in the 19th minute but his goal was ruled out for offside. The call was tight as television replays showed that the Sundowns striker was in line with Casablanca’s last defender after Lucas Ribeiro set him up with a clever through ball.

Sundowns grew in confidence as the opening half carried on and just when it looked like they had gained control of the game, they were reduced to 10-man after Aubaas was given his marching orders for a dangerous lunge on Youness Najari.

It went from bad to worse from Masandawana when Benamar gave the Moroccan champions the lead on the stroke of half time with an easy finish. The Sundowns defence tried to play an offside trap but got their timing wrong as Benamar found himself unmarked from a well-worked corner routine to open the scoring.

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Mudau was also red-carded in injury time for punching an opponent. Casablanca held on for three points in what was their first win of the group stages to move to four points and one behind Sundowns after four rounds of matches.