Sundowns’ Tshabalala welcomes Caf Champions League draw

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies coach Jerry Tshabalala is excited about the 2022 Caf Women’s Champions League following the draw that was held in Rabat on Friday.

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The Brazilian Ladies, who are are the current champions of the Women’s Champions League having won the maiden tournament in 2021, have been placed in Group B alongside Nigeria’s Bayelsa Queens, Egypt’s Wadi Degla, and the Caf WCL Unifac qualifiers champions, which are yet to be decided.

Group A contains Morocco’s AS FAR, Tanzania’s Simba Queens, Zambia’s Green Buffaloes, and Liberia’s Determine Girls FC.

“This is an exciting draw, and we are happy with the various teams we have been paired against. Last year, we faced a Moroccan side in ASFAR and a Nigerian team in Rivers Angels in the group stage and now we have an Egyptian team in Wadi Degla and another Nigerian side in Bayelsa Queens. This means we are playing against teams whose style of football we have come to understand. Hopefully, we will find out who the Unifac champion is very soon. Overall, we are happy with the results of the draw,” said the Sundowns Ladies coach.

“We expect the second edition of the Caf Women’s Champions League to deliver fireworks. Thus, we have to bank on our experience to be able to retain the bragging rights over the tournament we won last year. We are looking forward to making more history on the continent and we cannot wait to get started. For us to be champions of Africa again, we need to play against the stronger opponents, and we are ready for that.”

Tshabalala and his charges qualified for the continental tournament automatically as current champions, but they lost the final of the Cosafa qualifiers to Zambia’s Green Buffaloes.

The Caf Women’s Champions League will be held in Morocco between 30 October and 13 November 2022.