After a successful weekend in the Nedbank Cup, Mamelodi Sundowns will shift their focus to their first leg of the CAF Champions League quarterfinals. The fixture against Esperance Sportive de Tunis, which is to take place on Tuesday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld comes after Masandawana finished second on the Group B Table.
Bafana Ba Style come from a match which was played on Friday, providing them only three days to prepare for their quarterfinal match. This, according to coach Miguel Cardoso, will not stop the team from giving an outstanding performance.
“We could not profit from more time to prepare for this game. Regarding recovery, everyone will be recovered by Tuesday. We have had enough time to recover, we just didn’t have enough time to prepare. This, however, doesn’t take away the high level of performance we are going to display on the pitch. The team will for sure be ready for a good game tomorrow and the challenges we’ll face,” he said.
The two sides last met last year in the Champions League semifinals where Esperance knocked out the Pretoria-based side. Coach Miguel says the Esperance side Masandawana played last season is not the same and will have to deal with the new challenges they bring to the pitch. He said: “The Esperance team is different from the one they played last year, in terms of players and the style of play. What we expect is a side that is loyal to Esperance’s style of play. We will, however, from the first minute, search for the result we need to advance to the next round.”
Defender, Aubrey Modiba, who is no stranger to the continental competition that is the CAFCL, stated that despite how tough the competition is, especially after being knocked out in the semifinals last season, he’d like to see the team go all the way to the final and win it. He has admitted that it’s something the team has spoken about.
“I won’t lie, we’ve spoken about winning the Champions League. In these past seasons, we have fallen short in the semis and quarterfinals. We know these games aren’t easy and we fight every season to bring that second star. We currently have a good squad that’s ready to fight, and a technical team that is helping us. Hopefully this season we can go all the way. We want to see ourselves in the finals because we stand a better chance to win the Champions League. We will take each game as it comes. Now the focus is on tomorrow’s game and hopefully, we’ll get a good result,” Modiba said.
On what he expectd from his side on Tuesday afternoon, coach Miguel said he anticipates that his charges will display one of their beat performances. One that will excite the Yellow Nation.
“These are moments and matches that need us to focus on getting desired results. What you should expect in this kind of match is achieving results. Connecting the minds for us to go and fight together properly helps the team grow. In this match, I expect our players to bring out their best performance on the field.”
Mamelodi Sundowns will lock horns with Tunisian side, Esperance Sportive de Tunis on Tuesday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld. Kick-off has been scheduled for 15H00, live on SuperSport TV.
There’s no improvement from the group stages at all, it’s like we haven’t been playing in the champions league for a very long time. If we don’t win the champions league this season, I doubt we’ll ever win it again. In fact Pirates stand a much better chance of winning it than us. You can clearly see the determination from their play that they want it than anyone else. I think the Pirates coach is also a big difference between us and them, he’s so brave. Playing Mbokazi away in such a crucial game takes a lot of courage. Esquivael played so well against Sekhukhune, but he wasn’t even in the day squad against Esperance. The combination of Modiba and Suarez at the back is also not convincing, I thought the coach learned something in our loss against Pirates, Suarez and Modiba were the biggest culprits, in particular Suarez. There was simply no sense of urgency in our game, and I’m not convinced we’ll come back alive from Tunisia 🇹🇳
Exactly my point member,i thought maybe i was delusional and number 1 culprit is Williams,the boy thinks he is the best thing that ever happened to Downs,we nearly conceded early in the the 1st half because of his stupid unnecessary playing from the back,he gave Suarez the ball on the edge of our 18 area when Suarez was surrounded by 3 players and he was nearly dispossessed,and everybody could see Suarez was having a bad game,he couldn’t even trap the ball once he needed 2nd chance to control the ball yet stupid captain added to his misery.Second half Williams also took long to release the ball until all our players are closed down the he gave Kekana the ball under pressure and Kekana nearly got serious injury from Mokwana all because of Williams’playing from the back,he plays football with only his feet not using his brain,if he has football brains and at Bafana he plays more long balls hence i say he things he is Sundowns.Truth be told Modiba is now liability,please coach select players who are hungry and willing to die for the success of the team.We were playing at home and we should have put that team under relentless pressure instead,we played champions league quarter final like it is preseason and we are trying new combinations.We are not trying to dictate the coach who to play but based on the performance Modiba and Suarez don’t deserve to start,Modida should be in the stands.Way forward,2nd leg we should not be naive like we were against Pirates,we should start with Mokoena and Aubaas in the middle,if we can play serious football we are capable of humiliating Esperance in their own back yard,but if we are still going to play Suarez,Modiba and Williams doesn’t change his stupid play, mark my words we are surely going to be hammered