Sundowns to stay in Cairo for Champions League double-header

Mamelodi Sundowns have decided to stay in Egypt after their Caf Champions League match against Al-Merrikh, who have been forced to play their games in Cairo as their home stadium in Sudan does not meet Caf standards. 

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The tie is scheduled to take place this Saturday, and about a week later, Downs will face Pitso Mosimane’s Al-Ahly.

“It is better to stay there than travel in and out. If maybe we could get direct flights to Egypt, we would probably come back and go again but now we don’t have them because Egypt Air flies on few days,” said Masandawana co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi 

“Unfortunately on the days that we are targeting to go, we have a situation where we have to look at the other airlines and that makes the travelling very long, because we have to stop somewhere.”

He continued to explain: “A stay in Egypt is the best option, we looked at it with the coaches and everyone involved and we all felt we might end up having a lot of travel fatigue if we made two separate trips to Egypt. We will find ourselves a very good place to camp so that we can be able to have a proper training program in preparation for the second match.”  

Sundowns are likely to travel with everyone who is fit and available for these two games as they look to take charge of the group in this first round of fixtures.

“We will take a substantial number of players considering that we are playing two matches. Normally we take 25 players for one match but this time around we will take a little bit more because we know that there are Covid-19 issues. We have to take as many as we can,” said Mngqithi, whose side conceded a late goal against Baroka in the DStv Premiership to draw 1-1. Mngqithi was not happy with the officiating, but does not want to be too vocal about it.  

“I would prefer to not talk much about the referees because sometimes we make assumptions when we have not really had a proper look to see what transpired, but from what I’ve seen, I do believe that there were some calls that were not the best.”