Wayne Arendse opened up on what Mamelodi Sundowns need to do to be unstoppable against Wydad Casablanca in their Caf Champions League clash on Friday.
The Brazilians take on the reigning African champions in Casablanca at 9pm South African time in their penultimate match in the group stage of the continent’s premier cub competition.
Casablanca lead Group C with eight points, followed by Bafana BaStyle who are on five points along with third-placed Horoya with AS Togo-Port at the bottom with three points.
Wydad might have an edge in this encounter playing in front of their home fans but Sundowns have a good record against North African giants.
In the march to conquer the continent in 2016 Sundowns slayed ES Setif of Algeria and Egypt’s Zamalek in the group stage and the final of the Champions League.
“At this stage the most important thing is to play your game,” Arendse said from Casablanca.
“As soon as you start thinking about the crowd, the referee and all those things, that’s where you start making mistakes. When we won the Champions League in 2016, we just played our game and we enjoyed the game. We did what we had to do. We played with flair and freedom. We should keep that approach. We need to play our game with flair and freedom because when we do that, Sundowns are unstoppable.”
The Brazilians had their first training session in Morocco on Wednesday after their long trip from Johannesburg to Casablanca via Ghana and then Rabat. Arendse and company will get a feel of the match venue on Thursday night in their session at Stade Mohammed V on the eve of the encounter.
“We know that this is the one that we need to win,” Arendse said.
“The guys are looking fresh because this is a different competition and a different stage. We want to get going. The last time we played against them in Morocco last year, it was a knockout game. This game is no different. We need to win this game. We didn’t play in Casablanca in our last game so I think that this time around it will be different because we will be in front of their home fans, playing in their city. It will be an interesting game.”
