Sundowns set sights on Carling Knockout and Champions League

Neo Maema remains upbeat over the Mamelodi Sundowns’ chances of claiming more silverware than they did in the previous campaign where they ended up with the league title and African Football League (AFL). 

The MTN8 has already eluded Sundowns this season but there’s still the Carling Knockout, Nedbank Cup and the Betway Premiership to play for in the domestic front.

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Despite the Caf Champions League being their biggest target, the Brazilians will be hoping to defend their AFL crown as well. 

Maema was speaking at the last 16 draw of the Carling Knockout on Tuesday where Sundowns were drawn against Golden Arrows. The Tshwane giants were knocked out at the same stage of the competition by TS Galaxy last year.

“A lot of people are expecting us to win every match and when we don’t win, it becomes a big deal because Sundowns are a big club,” Maema said.

“We have some quality players, if not all, so we want to make sure that we remain the dominant force that we are but it hasn’t been easy in cup competitions. We don’t want our supporters to think we only do well when it comes to league games but not cups and starting with the Carling Knockout, we want to do well in cup competitions.”

Maema is itching to get their Champions League group stage campaign underway. The 2016 champions have been pitted against Moroccan teams Raja Casablanca and AS FAR with Maniema Union of the Democratic Republic of Congo completing group B.

“It’s always the big fish that we want, we’re hopeful and think that we can win it. Getting two teams from Morocco which is a footballing nation and you can see by the supporters they’re very good teams that we’re going to play in our group,” Maema concluded.

“We have played Maniema from the DRC before. It’s an interesting group but we can’t wait for it to get started because I feel like we haven’t had many games. We know how our schedule can get so we can’t wait for the champions league to get started so that we can know what we’re working towards.”

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On his lack of game time so far this season under coach Manqoba Mngqithi, Maema is positive of a turnaround in fortunes having only made a single appearance in the MTN8 Cup against Polokwane City.