Sundowns set on not repeating mistakes in round two of derby

Looking at the personnel of Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United, it appears as though the defending DStv Premiership champions have the upper hand, given Matsatsantsa A Pitori’s absence of key players such as Teboho Mokoena, Sipho Mbule and Kudakwashe Mahachi. The Pretoria rivals square off at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday night.

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“Maybe circumstances are favouring us because we did not have Rivaldo Coetzee in the last game, which gave him a chance to rest and Andile Jali is out for this game, so we have a benefit of Rivaldo coming back from suspension. These are elements that always freshen up the team. You never want to change your best team but when circumstances like this happen, they give you a chance to rotate the team and see what you can get from that,” said Sundowns co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi.

The Downs mentor is still aching from the result of the last edition of this derby where The Spartans became the first team to score against Sundowns in 11 games as Kaitano Tembo’s men came back from two goals down to draw 2-2.

“It’s still very sore that we conceded two goals against SuperSport in a game that we believe we could have wrapped with more goals than two. The truth of the matter is that we are now facing a new chapter and we need to give it our best shot,” said Mngqithi.

He adds: “We never believed that we deserved a draw in that match and the same feeling goes into this one because we believe we can win this match. How can we improve on what we did in the previous game is what we need to focus on.

“Sundowns and SuperSport always play interesting football and that is one thing that I always pride the Tshwane derby with and it is usually a match that is full of goals. What we need to do is guard against anxiety and a bit of arrogance because there is no game that we are entitled to win. We must roll up our sleeves and work very hard because we know SuperSport are going to be a hard nut to crack.”