Manqoba Mngqithi backs Sundowns to exorcise Al Ahly demons
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Co-Coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes Mamelodi Sundowns can overcome Al Ahly in their Caf Champions League group.
Co-Coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes Sundowns can overcome Al Ahly in their Caf Champions League group.
While conceding that Al Ahly pose a massive challenge, Mngqithi said there were no easy draws in the competition.
Sundowns backed to beat African Champions
It was Al Ahly who eliminated Sundowns from last season’s tournament at the quarter-final stage and went on to win the competition. Downs’ mentor however says they are ready to rise.
“My impressions of the draw will always be the most difficult to comprehend because one, once you get into the last 16 it is always difficult to make a choice as to who you would like to play against, and all the teams that are there probably 75 if not more than 90 percent of them have won the Champions League before so there is no chance of avoiding anyone,” Mngqithi told the club media.
“We just have to soldier on give it our best effort and understand that at this stage of the competition everybody who is here is looking to win it so we just have to focus ourselves and make sure our team is strong enough to compete until the end.”
Getting those miles in
Mngqithi acknowledged that being group with the Egyptian giants and a pair of Sudanese teams in Al Hilal Omdurman and Al Merrikh puts them at a disadvantage in terms of travel.
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Egypt and Sudan are North African neighbours meaning Sundowns will rack up considerably more travel miles on their three away dates.
“The only challenge with the group is that it involves extensive travelling to Sudan and that is where our challenge might be but you cannot ask for any other team in the Champions League because if you look at all the other groups, you will realise that all of them have got very difficult and stiff competition.
“But otherwise it is a group that we will fight very hard to pull through, we are confident that the group of players that we have can help us to go through in this group but to earn that, we have to work very hard because it is not going to be easy.”
Sundowns will open their group stage campaign at home to Al-Hilal in the second week of February 2022.
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