Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena says his side are only focused on winning and fair play amid questions about whether he thinks about CAF Champions League record-winners Al Ahly ahead of their Al Hilal match.
Downs have already qualified for the knockout stages after beating Al Ahly 5-2 last weekend, with the Egyptian giants now depending on Masandawana to not lose in Sudan in order to keep their own chances of qualifying for the quarter-final alive.
Sundowns’ win saw them climb to 10 points in Group B, while Hilal follow with nine points and Ahly only sit on four.
The Egyptian giants need to beat Coton Sport on Friday and hope that Al Hilal doesn’t beat Sundowns tomorrow to set up another must-win clash against Florent Ibenge’s side on the final match day.
Due to the constellation in the group, Mokwena was asked whether he’ll potentially field a weaker team and is thinking about Al Ahly, but he dismissed any talk of Sundowns not treating Saturday’s match properly.
“No [I’m not thinking about Al Ahly]. I don’t know what happens, we just have to concentrate on ourselves and win the game for ourselves,” he said.
“We focus on that. We’re honest people, we’re honest to the game. We do everything properly for football because football is a sport where you have to serve it honestly and that’s what we’ll do.
“So the answer is, I wish every team the best of luck and we do the best that we can to do it for ourselves and make sure we represent Mamelodi Sundowns as best as we possibly can.”
Mokwena also insisted that he will not field a weakened team, saying Themba Zwane, who was sitting next to him in the presser, will lead a strong line-up.
“The reason why Themba is here is because Themba is playing tomorrow and when Themba is playing tomorrow you must know that it’s a match we want to win,” he added.
“The captain is sitting here, the captain represents part of the line-up that you should expect tomorrow.
“So I answer the question to say it’s a very important game and it’s a game we want to win and a game we want to make sure that we continue to play well.
– Advertisement –
“We don’t have a reserve team at Sundowns. We don’t have any of that. We have all our players and all our players are important to us and all our players must help us to win this football match.”
The Red Devils face Coton Sport in Cameroon on Friday at 18:00, while Downs play Al Hilal in Sudan at 15:00 on Saturday.
