Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has insisted it will be completely different clashes with Al Ahly in comparison to last year when Masandawana beat Pitso Mosimane’s side twice.
The DStv Premiership champions were drawn in Group B alongside Al Ahly, Al Hilal and Coton Sport, with Sundowns facing the CAFCL record champions eight times over the last four years.
Mokwena says Downs vs Al Ahly has become a big fixture in African football and insisted the club’s analytics team will do their best to analyse their opponents, who have changed coaches and cannot be compared to the team Masandawana twice beat 1-0 during last year’s group stages.
“I think it’s always difficult to travel to Cairo, we know that. Al Ahly are always difficult to play against away from home,” he told the club’s media department.
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“Not just the environment and the hostility around traveling into Cairo and playing them in their own backyard, but they’ve changed the coaches and made also a lot of improvements in the squad. So technically, it’s going to be a little bit different [than last year].
“We’ve seen already a couple of their games, but now we have to zoom in and zoom in with a little bit more of a technical focus. And of course already we’ve got our analysts working around the clock to get as much information as as we possibly can.
“But of course, over the years, this has now become a very big fixture: Sundowns versus Al Ahly and both home and away.
“It’s going to be very strategic, very tactical and we expect that particularly because we know how Al Ahly always seem to play against Sundowns and the personality that they adopt both in the home matches and in the way matches is completely different team and a different approach.”
“But it will be a very interesting game, for sure, and against two teams that know each other very well and have enough quality to compete against each other.”
