One of the biggest showdowns in African football is coming up when Mamelodi Sundowns host rivals from Egypt, Al Ahly, in the first leg of the CAF Champions League (CAFCL) semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld.
Heading to their first meeting since 2023, the one-time CAFCL winners will look to maintain their recent dominance over their Al Ahly counterparts by winning at home before heading to Egypt for the return fixture.
Looking ahead to the highly anticipated encounter, coach Miguel Cardoso admitted that the meeting will not be a walk in the park, but the past results have given him the belief and confidence that Downs can emerge triumphant.
“We have a tough competition ahead against such a strong team. This game is undeniably a challenge, but we have to beat it. The Club has won against Al Ahly in the past, so we will try our best to get a positive result. From then on, we will hope that we can compete in the final and play several league matches with the hopes of raising trophies,” he said.
The aim in this meeting for the Brazilians, will not only be to win at home, but to also display a performance that can set the world alight. The coach is confident that his charges can do exactly that, despite the successful record their rivalries hold in the Champions League.
“We know that Al Ahly in the last seven years have won a lot of Champions League titles. Last year, I unfortunately lost in the final against them, but I think beating them is a possibility. We will, however, need to make two very complete games, two strong games that will be played on the details. So, we will need to be strong and prepare ourselves in the best way possible.”
Mamelodi Sundowns will look to complete an eight-match unbeaten run over Al Ahly when they host them on Saturday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld. Kick-off has been scheduled for 15H00, live on SuperSport TV and SABC Sport.
I said it after Chiefs game and I’m gonna say it again,we’re regressing at very fast pace.Last game we had only two shots on target in the first half and today we had zero shots on target for the whole game in a semifinal of the biggest club tournament in the continent.In football there’s only one method of winning a game that is by scoring more goals than your opponent not by controlling the game more than your opponents.Mokoena, Adams and Allende combination will never yield any goals but only possession.Since chiefs game Mokoena loses the ball like is fashion and he doesn’t get replaced but if it was Aubaas it was gonna be a different story.Costa is forever casual,loses the ball and always plays 90 minutes.I think someone last time said we going to end season empty handed now I concur.We have Sundowns players and coach’s players.The team and schedule are too big for the coach hence he wants to trim the team and if the management can allow him to do that nonsense we are going to lose good players when the coach is the one who needs to be trimmed.There is nothing exciting about Sundowns anymore.
Cardoso is poor as coach, we can’t even attack with intensity we are very slow to punish our opponents, we play as if we are wining,
No sense of urgency, we lift the ball instead of playing it to the ground and position get overturned easily and Cardoso as a coach doesn’t correct that and keeps quiet, this helicopter football is killing this team!!!!! Sundowns doesn’t look threatening to teams anymore, we play the most toothless football and massage opponents, that’s why we can have 70% ball possession with no shot at goal, even Chiefs can beat us these days. Yesterday’s performance was appalling to say the least, we have no fighting spirit whatsoever, Ahly looked like they wanted it more than us, Rebeiro needs to be benched going forward, he loses position cheaply and forever casual. Playing good players in critical games that are not match fit shows how poor this coach is, Zwane and Mathews should’ve been given game time long ago in order to be match fit by Ahly’s game but he wants to put unfit players in a crucial game. We have no coach here!!
Going to Cairo on Friday we need to attack with width. A player like Morena is needed on the right wing and Themba Zwane must start as a 10. Our build up must not be slow as this gives Al Ahly time to regroup. I have confidence in the boys that they can score in Cairo
Good luck make us proud.