Sundowns kickoff CAFCL with a narrow win over Al Hilal

It was not the usual well-oiled Mamelodi Sundowns that displays glittery performances as they had to overcome a gallant fight from Al-Hilal to bag all three points in the Caf Champions League group stage at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, beating the Sudanese side 1-0 last night.

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Any team that has played Sundowns knows that they cannot afford to be sloppy in defence, particularly when you are up against the high alert and lethal Themba Zwane and Peter Shalulile. That was the biggest difference in the game as Al-Hilal’s rear guard were punished as early as the 8th minute when they could not play their way from their own half. The pressure from Masandawana front-line forced them to make mistakes at the back and Zwane profited from that school boy run of play, snatching a stray pass and slotted past goalkeeper Ali Aboeshren.

After much asking from Masandawana’s technical team for Gaston Sirino to get back into the groove and lift his hand to fight for the team, the Uruguayan seems to have been working on his attitude, and just when Downs coaches were convinced, they gave him the nod and named him in the starting line-up – something that has been rare this season.

However, his time on the field came to a premature end when he collided with Faris Mamoun and his nose took the biggest knock as he had to be substituted in the 23rd minute. Thapelo Morena came on in his place to add to the firepower upfront alongside Peter Shalulile, Zwane and Pavol Safranko.

The hosts enjoyed a majority of the moves forward but the visitors did have a fair share of attempts at Denis Onyango, such as in the 80th minute when they began to apply a lot of pressure for Downs until they got a free-kick in a promising position. Skipper Mohamed Yousif stood over the ball but could not place his attempt on target.

Moments later, Daniel Alcaniz thought his side had found the equalizer when a well-swung corner kick fell to the feet of Walieldin Safour and he unleashed a bolting shot, beating Onyango but luckily for Bafana Ba Style, Zwane headed the ball off the line to make sure that Sundowns hold on to their lead and ultimately, all three points.

In the latter stages of the game, Erwin Saavedra was given a cameo and he showed glimpses of what he is capable of. Nonetheless, Downs will look to build up on this result in a weeks’ time when they travel to Sudan to face Al-Merrikh, but before that, they have a date with Baroka FC around dinner time on Valentines’ Day where they will look to extend their lead at the summit of the DStv Premiership.