Mamelodi Sundowns will be looking at securing their spot in the next round of the CAF Champions League when they come up against Al Ahly in the second leg of the quarter-finals on Saturday. The first leg ended in a 2-0 defeat in Cairo and expectations for a turn of events are on a high for The Brazilians.
“We have a bigger responsibility to make sure that at the end of the day, we achieve the outcome that we want. I am very confident and optimistic that if we apply ourselves very well and stay focused, improve on the kind of mistakes that we made. When we don’t make those kinds of mistakes we win matches.” said Manqoba Mngqithi.
The Masandawana coach believes that beating Egyptian Giants is a possibility considering their excellent performance in Egypt. Speaking at the CAF Media Day, Coach Manqoba said: “I am still very excited with the way I saw the team performing in Cairo because I don’t think we have ever performed like that away from home and [we were] unfortunate to concede the types of goals that we conceded. In my opinion, you can’t have better ball possession in Cairo if you are not playing well.”
Coach Manqoba confirmed that his team will look to do even more than what they did at Al Salam Stadium: “In terms of the performance, we strongly believe that without improving a lot in that performance but minimizing the types of mistakes that we made, we will always stand a better chance to get the result that we want. We are confident in the group that we have, if there is anyone that has the capacity to come back in this match it’s Sundowns.”
Themba Zwane, who was ruled out of the first round of this clash due to an injury, is expected to be on board for this battle after receiving positive injury results from doctors: “Based on the report that we got from the doctors and training that he had yesterday, it looks very positive. The doctors have indicated that he’s looking well and in the training session that he had he felt no pain and he’s been training regularly to try and keep himself fit. We are more than optimistic that he will help us, upon analysing the game we do believe that the role of Mshishi is still immense in the team.” concluded Coach Manqoba.
Mamelodi Sundowns play against Al Ahly in the second round of CAF Champions League quarter-finals on Saturday 22 May at Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium, Kick-off is 15h00., The game will be broadcast live on SABC 1.
Put Lakay so we can take advantage of free kicks
we out nothing much to say, we failed to score one goal there what makes us think is possible to score three here and knowing pitso he will pack the bus and our coaches don’t have plan b to teams that defend to deep
I would be beaming with hope if the result was either 1 – 0 or 2 – 1, to come back from 2 – 0 loss with Al Alhly is near impossible because should they score 1 goal its beyond over. That said we need to fight hard. No silly line ups of Modiba when Lakay could give us more.
Just forget it coach. We just don’t have the material to come back from 2-0, even when this Al Ahly is at their weakest. I even saw Sirino and Onyango posting wearing Al Ahly shirts
For as long as we’re going to play Rivaldo, Maboe and Mkhulise in that middlefield, we’re not going to trouble Al Ahly at all. Those three will just be playing possession football that doesn’t hurt the opposition. Pitso is coming here to pack the bus and try and hit us on a counter and the last time I checked we couldn’t even move buses here in the PSL lately
Pls 3 wise men, Saturday no Modiba and Mkhuma, Saturday is all abt fighting and my approach will be to don’t rush things get the two goals first half, let them tire up and take control of the second half, but they just mustn’t score, if we failed to score in Egypt then they msnt score here
We are going to shock many by bouncing back in style,this cup belongs to us. The biggest mistake the technical team made was to put Jali on the bench,we lacked his aggression.Shaulile,Motupa,Sirinoh and Zwane should start,and also Lakay,we need his free kicks..
Coach please do not field Denis and Sirino those two work for Pitso and not Mamelodi Sundowns Fc field Makgalwe to run on them and cause free kicks for Lay Lakey.Fild Jody February if any penalty arises he is very good on that or Muyeeni not Denis.
Play people with no purpose of creating chances like Mkhulise &Maboe u will be singing the same song of saying we dominated the game with no goals to compliment your statement.Pitso said Simba dominated the game but t Chiefs scored 4 goals & Sundowns dominated but Al Ahly scored 2 goals.It means a knockout game is a smadh& grab competition not a negative ball possession.Pitso is making u a fool by praising Mkhulise the same way he praised Ekstien in the 2015 Telkom knockout where Steve Kompela fell on that trap&fielded Hendrik Eksteen 2 b dominated by Zungu &Kekana.We support you but school boy errors r committed by u from the bench.Really u r reserving Morena for an away game in Egypt? Again u don’t highlight that Morena was out muscled & dragged by the same striker who scored a great goal.As for the conduct of Sirino , his comments & wearing the jersey of an opponent leaves a lot to b desired & drastic measures need to be taken.Again Sundowns management r thinking very shallow if you can refuse 50 million Rand for a below the par performance of Sirino?Wow!!! Bradley Ralani&Kutumela of Maritzburg can give you a better return than this big head of Sirino.Sirino is going for a quick fix where he will be expelled with his coach once things go wrong at Al Ahly.Let him go to protect a good dressing room atmosphere.Sirino was made by us not the way around &life will still continue even in his absence.Pitso has gone we r number one on the log since the start of the season with games in hand something never happened in Pitso’s time at Sundowns,which means records r broken for all the good reasons at Sundowns.
Poor substititions from da technical team…..Motupa,Mudau!!!! And AGAIN SIRINO was substited!!!!!
If Sundowns not change to quick play not going anywhere that slow thousands passes not shoot soccer its game of goal not nice play higher ball positions i still not believe what Kekana done wrong each every game same substituted Serino doesn’t make sense
Honestly speaking I never expected us to even reach this far. The boyz raised my expectations in the group stages, but I thought we were going to be knocked out in the group stages. We’ll try again next season.
Last season won cups this season’s lost 3 knockout top 8 Nedbank & Caf whats that means judge yourself?.