Mosimane: Either a win or go home time for us

Former African champions, Mamelodi Sundowns have their backs against the wall ahead of their Day Four tie against Togolese side, AS Togo on Friday, 27 July 2018, as they hope to reclaim their number one spot in the continent’s prestigious club competition.

The current South African champions find themselves in a very delicate situation where anything less than a win at the Lucas Moripe Stadium could see them bow out of the competition following disappointing results in the group stages.

A 1-1 stalemate against reigning champions, Wydad Athletic Club at home followed by a 2-2 away draw against Horoya AC plus a shocking 1-0 loss away to AS Togo sees Pitso Mosimane’s side languishing at the bottom of Group B, needing maximum points in their remaining Group C matches to stand a chance of progressing further.

Even though the situation isn’t entirely new to the South Africans considering their slow start in the competition in the last two editions, Mosimane’s men will be hoping to travel to Morocco for their next game with the comfort of three points from Friday’s  encounter which will require them to tighten what seems to be a leaky defense.

“This is a must win and nothing else. We can’t afford to drop any points at this stage. It’s in our hands now because we can move up to five points and hope things go our way in Casablanca. Normally not a lot of clubs come back from Casablanca with a result, so we need to do the job here and hopefully it will go our way,” said Mosimane at the clubs training session on Tuesday.

The Brazilians will be going into the Champions League for the first time without two of their trusted talismen who have played a huge role in the club’s success of the couple of seasons. Zimbabwean sensation, Khama Billiat faced has joined rivals Kaizer Chiefs while their leading goalscorer, Percy Tau has moved to English Premier League side, Brighton and Hove Albion.

However, Mosimane will draw solace from the fact that New Zealand international, Jeremy Brockie has finally broken the duck and scored his first goal in Sundowns colours which saw them edge Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 in a pre-season friendly last weekend.

“It’s obviously been a long time coming and glad that people can stop asking when the first goal would come. I hope that I did enough in the game to cement my place in the line-up because we have a lot of quality players at Sundowns who can do the job against AS Togo. If given an opportunity on Friday, I am hoping to continue where I left off,” said Brockie.

“Playing on the continent requires you to move away from your normal style and adjust to the situations. At times we play on artificial fields which require a different approach. If you look at the game against Togo, we created numerous chances, but they got a few and punished us and sat back most of the time,” added the New Zealander.

Holders Wydad will face Horoya of Guinea in the other Group C tie in Casablanca on Saturday.

Fixtures

Group A

28.07.2018    13H00 Kampala        KCCA (Uganda) vs Esperance (Tunisia)

28.07.2018    16H00 Gaborone      Rollers (Botswana) vs Ahly (Egypt)

Group B

27.07.2018    19H00 Jadida           Difaa El Jadidi (Morocco) vs ES Setif (Algeria)

28.07.2018    19H00 Blida              MC Alger (Algeria) vs TP Mazembe (DR Congo)

Group C

27.07.2018    19H00 Pretoria         Sundowns (South Africa) vs AS Togo (Togo)

28.07.2018    19H00 Casablanca    Wydad (Morocco) vs Horoya (Guinea)

Group D

27.07.2018    19H00 Sousse                     Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia) vs Swallows (Swaziland)

27.07.2018    16H00 Luanda          Primeiro de Agosto (Angola) vs Zesco (Zambia)