Petro de Luanda head coach Alexandre Santos has warned Mamelodi Sundowns they haven’t come to South Africa to defend their CAF Champions League quarter-final lead.
Petro hold a 2-1 advantage after their first leg victory in Luanda last week but face one of the tournament favourites in the form of Sundowns who have been ruthless this season at home.
They’ve scored seven goals in four games in Mzansi this season and ahead of their clash at FNB Stadium with only one away win from their four away from home.
And Santos is adamant that if they try and park the proverbial bus, they are likely to be punished and it’s something they will look to avoid tomorrow.
“It will be two great attacking sides that will face each other to play positive football, to play with the ball, we will try to do our job, our ambition, our challenge – because we showed in the first leg that we could achieve more steps in this Champions League,” he said in the post match press conference.
“We know we have to perform well to achieve this because the second half of the quarter-finals is tomorrow and the first half we won 2-1 – but we have performed well to keep this result. The main goal of the match is not to save the advantage but play the game like the first leg, and do our best to get to the semi-finals against one of the best teams in Africa.
“Mamelodi Sundowns is a powerful team that deserves our respect but we can arrive here with all the ambition to get another good result and our goal is to go to the last-four, a big dream of our club and our players.”
Petro currently lead the Girabola by two points ahead of reigning champions Sagrada Esperanca and have defied all odds by reaching this stage of the competiton by qualifying from Group C which held their domestic rivals, Zamalek and Wydad Atheltic Club.
“I think the best way to face this game is not to defend the 2-1 but of course, we have to know that we fight against a strong team, Sundowns will be strong and wants to control the game, wants to be stronger than us,” Santos continued.
“They want to take the ball from us and play the type of game where they are in control, it’s normal for Sundowns in the league, it’s normal in the group stage in the Champions League, they did a very good job with that type of style.
“But I think and we believe that we can have a good game, not only defending because when one team comes to the second leg of quarter-finals or semi-finals only to think of defending the lead – is the worst way to progress to the next round.
“We think it’s very important to put Sundowns in different situations, give them different problems and that’s us having the ball – we’ll try to control some moments of the game. We’ll try to play our game when it’s possible, it will be difficult because Sundowns want to control the game – but we know in these games, there are moments that can change.
“We want to use those moments to have the ball in Sundowns box and we want to score, both of us scored in almost every game this season and we want to score also again. Let’s see if we can – we’ll do everything to do that.”
Os Tricolores and Masandawana will meet at the iconic 2010 FIFA World Cup arena on Saturday afternoon in an action-packed event planned by the club at 18h00.
