Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena says they are under no illusions of their historical struggles in the quarter-finals and teams from North Africa ahead of their first leg clash against CR Belouizdad on Saturday.
The DStv Premiership champions take on the Algerian Ligue 1 champions at the Nelson Mandela Stadium tomorrow in a game that Mokwena has once again retiertated will not be a walkover based on the quality squad they are facing.
“What does it mean for us? It’s a good team, you can see with their domestic form, I think unless a big miracle happens, it a team that goes for a fourth title in a row,” Mokwena said in the pre-match press conference.
“It’s a team that has good competitive experience, not just in the Champions League but for the Algeria national team, you’ve got [Mokhtar] Belkhither, you have [Youcef] Laouafi, [Houssem] Mrezigue, [Zakaria] Draoui – these are players who play for the national team.
“The keeper [Alexis] Guendouzi is experienced and the center-backs, these are players with good physicality, experience with good competitive experience, so we know not only on that side of the pitch, but you have to do a very good job. Because on the other side of the pitch [they are impressive too]. So on both sides of the boxes, we will need to be very good against this team.”
With Sundowns showing so much promise over the last few seasons, they have only reached the semi-final stage once since winning their maiden title under then head coach Pitso Mosimane back in 2016.
“There’s a lot of differences in relation to the previous fixture, one of the biggest is we didn’t play in Algeria, we played in Tanzania,” Mokwena said in reference to their previous results in the group stages.
“Although there are similarities, there’s been a big evolution of the team in terms of style of play and tactics and there are a couple of players who remain in the side, but also a couple of changes.
“We have to understand that but we are also under no illusion, we know how difficult it will be, to play against North African sides has always been difficult for us, to go beyond the quarter-finals of this competition has always been difficult for us.
“We know we lost the previous encounter in Pretoria against Belouazdid, who we’re under no illusions how difficult this is but we’re a good team with very good players who are honest and always give their best.”
