Mamelodi Sundowns have booked a place in the CAF Champions League knockout stages following a 2-0 victory courtesy of Brayan Leon’s brace against MC Alger on Saturday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld.
From the time the kick-off whistle was blown, the hosts were making things difficult for the Algerian side and were applying pressure, trying to create early chances. The pressure didn’t take long before they capitalised. In the 6th minute, from range, Arthur Sales attempted a long-range effort which was smacked away by the keeper. Brayan Leon, however, intercepted the attempt to clear and broke the deadlock for Downs.
Just before the 15th minute mark, the visitors almost levelled matters by pressing Ronwen Williams. Luckily, the Downs goalkeeper managed to quickly clear the ball away.
The visitors looked to salvage the situation before he break when they missed the target through a headed effort. It had come from a corner kick, but due to being in each other’s way, the one who connected to the ball tried to head it towards the goal, but it sailed over the bar.
Teboho Mokoena came very close twice in the closing stages of the first stanza. The first opportunity came from a corner kick where he was looking to shoot from a half-acrobatic effort, but the MC Alger defence quickly went in front of him to clear the ball.
While Masandawana were in search of an opportunity to double their advantage, their visitors were looking to level matters, which saw the two go at each other in the final half.
The second and biggest chance of the half was when he rattled the crossbar from range. Despite the many chances they missed and dominance in the opening half, a goal was what separated the two sides.
Just after the hour mark, Leon doubled the hosts’ advantage through a tap-in. Through an impressive build-up, as Downs took advantage of the pockets of space, Leon’s goal was just what the hosts needed to seal the victory in their backyard.
In what was a physical match between the two sides, Bafana Ba Style’s dominance worked to their advantage as they bagged three points and a spot in the knockout round of the CAF Champions League.
How we lined up: Williams ©, Mudau, Ndamane, Kekana, Modiba, Mokoena, Adams, Sales, Morena, Leon, Matthews.
Subs: Onyango, Reisinho, Allende, Mothiba, Letlhaku, Shalulile, Zwane, Lunga, Johannes.
I was shocked by Tebogo Mokoena’s wayward passing especially when we r on attack mode abt 3 times Mokoena misdirected a pass.It showed yesterday that Sundowns can play great football without Santos&Reisinho,bt alas come Wednesday we’ll b subjected to that lazy football from those cows.Bt anyway a great game &a great result yesterday.A win was inevitable yesterday,bt I don’t whether Cardoso needs insults b4 Sundowns gives us a great fight.This proves that supporters r rite inwhatever r saying abt Cardoso and he knows that he’s wrong.Anyway many thanks 4 progressing to the next stage bt we r expecting nothing except this finder finder from Cardoso and if he thinks we r going to praise him,he must forget until he comes with a glory of some sort otherwise Cardoso is just an ordinary plumber who deserves no applauding.We not going 2 praise a fish for swimming never.
Mfana,you are 100% correct about Teboho Mokoena,the boy is useless even during our away game against St Lupopo he was playing nonsense and the useless coach replaced Adams instead of him.They is also that thing called Williams,he nearly made a penalty in the first half with his nonsense of playing at the back he made lots of stray passes,Mokoena,Williams and Kekana must stop their nonsense of playing at the back.My friend even told me that the way Mokoena is playing it seems like he is thinking about playing in the World Cup whe is no longer committed to us.I really think we must get Goodman Mosele to replace him.We really need new and hungry players.I also refuse to praise Cardoso because he can play one good game and five bad games.
Congratulations to the entire Masandawana family for qualifying to the quarter finals,thanks to the players for playing for that badge and thanks also to whoever advised Cardoso to select the local players, those players are self coaching ,they are tactically aware and advanced and played the game well to win us the quarter final spot.Adams plays well with Tebza , thanks God, Santos had yellow cards and could not play, Tebza, Adams, Morena, Modiba, Sales combination was marvel to watch and all of them can mark the opponents and attack when we have the ball, not lazy players like Reisino and Santos.Allende is good but can not start ahead of Adams.In short the line up was good against Alger.The paring of Kekana and Ndamane was good ,however let us have it tested against the speedy pirates fire power and once it survives then we can rely on it and it will also be good for Bafana Bafana, we also need to see lord Mvala if he is fit to play.I think I like Ndamane ,he seems to have the art of playing as a centre back and he will become a better player if he plays with Kekana.Tash is a good player and is not lazy ,he gets to good positions at the right time ,however he needs to work on his finishing.When kicking the ball his body must be over the ball to take a good kick.Leon ,like Sales and Allende is not bad at all and with time we will see man goals for him especially when we play the Sundowns way like i the last match, not this Cardoso javelin football.What they were playing last Saterday it was their tiki taka, they learnt from the previous coaches, not Cardoso’s javelin football.Masandawana please fill up the FNB stadium wednesday when the boys beat Pirates.