Sundowns Ladies coach hoping to start Caf champions League campaign on positive note

Mamelodi Sundowns will begin their Caf Women’s Champions League defence with a clash against Bayesla Queens at Grand Stade de Marrakech in Morocco on Monday.

Coach Jerry Tshabalala knows that teams will be aiming for their scalp, but he is aiming for a positive start.

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Tshabalala’s Sundowns Ladies won the women’s Champions League in its first edition last year following a great performance at the continental tournament.

Banyana Ba Style sailed to victory at the competition without a loss, winning all of their group stagesgames and going on to the final without even conceding a goal.

This time around, Tshabalala knows that things are likely to change, but they will be looking to repeat what they did last year.

“We know that every team will be looking to beat us as defending champions, that will be their aim. But we are ready for anything and we believe that we have prepared well for the tournament,” said the Sundowns coach.

“Look, we going to the tournament knowing very well that all the teams there are some of the best in Africa and no one will be guaranteed a win. Every team needs to work extra hard to make it a point they become successful.”

Coming up against Queens, who are based in Nigeriam in their opening game of the competition, Tshabalala admits that they don’t know a lot about their opponents.

“We tried to get some information about our opponents, but it wasn’t much.

“We will just work with what we got. But, what is important is how we apply ourselves and play our own game. It’s important that we win our match, it will give us confidence going into our next game. It will also put us in a good position to make sure that we get out of the group stages and go to the knockout stages.”