Pitso’s game plan thwarts Wydad

Pitso Mosimane’s game plan to nullify Wydad Casablanca’s wingers, thus starving their target-man Ayoub El Kaabi, seemed to work for Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday night as they grabbed a hard-fought goalless draw against their Moroccan rivals in their Caf Champions League Group C clash in Casablanca.

“I am happy that we dealt well with their striker El Kaabi. He is a very good football player and he is powerful, we made him play facing his goals. We also know that the right winger, Badi Aouk, likes to go to the wing and cross but we denied him space to cross. (It is the) same with Ismail El Haddad, he wants to go down the line and bring in the cross so if you deal with the wingers, then the striker does not get much,” said Mosimane .

The Brazilians received a standing ovation from Wydad fans at the Stade Mohamed V and the sea of red chanted Mosimane’s name. “Jingles”.

“The game came out the way we expected. The game between Sundowns and Wydad is always like this and I would have preferred a 1-1 or 2-2 draw than 0-0 because a beautiful game like this must have goals, especially because it is in the group stages and away goals do really matter.

“I think we started better and it was a game of two halves. We took the first half and in the last 20 minutes Wydad put a lot of pressure on us but we were defending very well and we did not make many mistakes,” Mosimane added.

The former Bafana Bafana coach continued: “Number 20, Aymane El Hassouni, was always a problem and I am happy he was substituted. The only time we had problems was with corner kicks and free kicks but we were good. We tried to go with the speed behind but they were pulling back because we were fast and they gave us space in the midfield to control the game. Wydad are a strong team and we still have a good deal of respect for them,” he said.

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