BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Sundowns Dumped Out, Pirates Make It Through In Champions League
The CAF Champions League defending champions are out. Mamelodi Sundowns will not play in the 2026/27 Champions League group stage after Angola’s Wiliete SC knocked them out on away goals at Loftus Stadium on Friday night.
It is one of the biggest shocks in recent African club football. Sundowns have reached the group stages in every season since 2016, and that run ended on a Friday night in Pretoria.
Sundowns opened their title defence with a 0-0 draw in Angola, a result that cost them Teboho Mokoena, who left the field on a stretcher in the first half. They were also without injured captain Ronwen Williams. The draw meant they needed a win at home to be sure of going through.
Miguel Cardoso called the return leg a final and spelled out the danger himself: “If we draw with goals then we are out.” That is exactly what happened.
Tashreeq Matthews put Sundowns ahead in the 11th minute, and the hosts led 1-0 at half-time. Wiliete’s veteran Angolan captain Mabululu then struck early in the second half, and Sundowns could not find a second goal. The 1-1 draw on the night left the aggregate level, and Wiliete went through on away goals.
Mabululu had scored three goals in the previous qualifying round, and Sundowns had held him quiet in the first leg. This time they could not.
Wiliete coach Beto Bianchi had put his side’s chances of eliminating Sundowns at 50%. The tie was also overshadowed by the alleged Steve Komphela-Bianchi bust-up after the first leg, which Cardoso played down earlier this week.
It is also an Angolan side again. Cardoso had warned that Sundowns were knocked out of the 2021/22 quarter-finals by Petro de Luanda.
Orlando Pirates made sure South Africa will still be represented in the group stage. The Buccaneers beat Namibia’s African Stars 5-0 on aggregate, having won the first leg 1-0 away. That means a 4-0 win in the second leg, after Abdeslam Ouaddou rested Nkosinathi Sibisi and shielded Yanela Mbuthuma. Only a draw was needed to go through, and Pirates went well beyond that.
Sundowns had recently beaten Pirates in the MTN8 final and Al Ahli of Saudi Arabi
