Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Pitso Mosimane (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
As heavy rainfalls hit parts of the country this weekend, Mamelodi Sundowns coach, Pitso Mosimane will hope it rains goals at Lucas Moripe Stadium this afternoon as he hopes his team can put up a good score to take to the return leg of their Caf Champions League quarterfinal against Egyptian giants, Al Ahly.
The message from Mosimane to his players was clear: “score as many goals as possible and shut the back door.”
Mosimane knows that outscoring the greatest team on the continent will not be an easy task as he has described them as a “perfect” team. If Downs stick to their brand of football that saw them collect maximum points at home in the group stages, “Jingles” they outwit the Egyptians and move to the semifinals.
“We need to thread carefully but what’s important is to play the same way we played against Wydad Casablanca, Asec Mimosas and Lobi Stars here. We need to take it to them. They are smart and very tactical. They are a team with top individual players, look after the ball well and have good movements.
“If we play the way we always played our Champions League games here at home we will be okay. We scored two against Wydad but it could have been three or four. We scored three against Asec and three against Lobi Stars but I am not saying we are going to score three goals but we believe we can do well.”
Mosimane said Ahly are, like any other team, beatable. “They are a perfect team in terms of play but even a perfect team like Manchester City do lose and we get motivation from the game that they played against Simba SC of Tanzania where they lost. They also lost to AS Vita, so it is doable. It always looks impossible until somebody does it,” Mosimane added.
Mosimane has a bit of intelligence on the Champions League record holders as one of his star players Phakamani Mahlambi was employed by Al-Ahly for about year. The 21-year-old believes that Downs can knock three goals past his ex-team.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
