Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has shared his views on playing with Video Assistant Referee in their CAF Champions League quarter-finals against Belouizdad.
The 2016 CAF Champions League winners will face the Algerian Ligue 1 leaders, who lost their first league game of the season on Monday, away from home this coming weekend.
Sundowns were knocked out of the competition by Angolan side Petro de Luanda at the very same stage last season and Mokwena knows his side are expected to move past Belouizdad.
This is their fifth quarter-final in five seasons but they only made the semi-final in 2018/19, when they eventually lost to Wydad Athletic Club.
Mokwena insisted that it shouldn’t matter much whether they play with VAR or without and his players must just focus on their performance.
“The VAR becomes another component, but it’s a component that is handled by match officials behind the scenes. It’s still a part of the game that is open, for sure, to flaws and to human error,” Mokwena said.
“So ours is not to put our minds much behind it, but to try to make sure we’re focused and focussed on playing a good side.
“They know, they will be playing against another good side. [We must] just focus on the match performance and trying to make sure we’re at our best and are playing to a level that is expected of us.”
