Sundowns ease past helpless ASEC Mimosas
Mamelodi Sundowns moved to the top of their group in Friday evening’s CAF Champions League encounter against Ivorian side, Asec Mimosas at the Loftus Stadium in Pretoria. Goals by Mosa Lebusa, Themba Zwane and new signing, Emiliano Tade saw the “Brazilians” cruise past a hapless Asec Mimosa side.
Both sides came into the clash desperate for a confidence boosting result with the hosts being booted out of a local cup competition and suffering their first league loss of the season on Wednesday. Mimosas on the other hand have only won one out of their last four league matches and were desperate for a result.
Surprisingly, it was the hosts almost found themselves on the backfoot as early as the 2nd minute when Mosa Lebusa attempted to clear a tricky cross from Salif Bagate for the clearance to narrowly go past the goal.
The in-form Themba Zwane could have put his side ahead in the fourth minute when some questionable defending saw the ball land at his feet but failed to pull the trigger.
Momentum began to build for the home side as they started playing their passing game with Mimosa beginning to chase shadows. After a good passage of play, Lyle Lakay’s delightful cross found Lebohang Maboe who headed his effort over the bar just before the 10-minute mark.
The deadlock was eventually broken in the 10th minute when Gaston Sirino beat a man before sending a pin-point cross to Mosa Lebusa who easily headed home from close range.
Sundowns’ joy was unfortunately short lived as Lebusa turned from hero to villain in just a matter of minutes when he fouled Kouame Yao in the box for Hamed Diomande to level matters for the Ivorians.
The equalizer distabilized Downs a bit with their passing game breaking in the final third as the visitors grew in confidence.
Lyle Lakay was unlucky not to reclaim the lead after a training ground move saw the left back’s free kick come off the post to the relieve of the visitors in the 23rd minute. Five minutes later, it was Mimosa with a chance at goal when Sundowns were caught napping as a cross found an unmarked Wonlo Coulibaly who’s header went wide off target as the sides went into the break squared at a goal apiece.
Sundowns looked to immediately pick up from where they left off in the second half as Hlompho Kekana unleashed one of his trademark strikes in the opening seconds of the second stanza. Five minutes later, Sirino unselfishly pulled the ball back when he could have taken a shot to tee up Anthony Laffor whose powerful strike was saved by the Abdoulkarim Cisse.
Mabo was unlucky again not to score after a headed cross from Ricardo Nascimento came his direction for the young forward to head it into the woodwork. The lead did eventually come in the 56th minute after a quick interchange of passes from Sirino, Maboe and Lakay concluded with Zwane comfortably tapping into an empty net to the joy of the Sundowns fans.
Bagate gave the Downs defense a quite some work to do but did not get the support from his teammates. A solo run after turning Lebusa would have been a great equalizer for the forward but his shot lacked direction in the 73rd minute.
Laffor, who was one of the stand out performers almost capped a good performance with a goal after doing well to chest down a cross before taking a shot from a tight angle which was cleared off the line. Minutes later, Sirino was the unlucky one with his shot from close range saved by Cisse for his follow up shot to be cleared off the line with just 10 minutes to play.
The former champions did however hammer the final nail in the visitors’ coffin after a well threaded ball by Themba Zwane put Emiliano Tade through on goal for the Argentine to comfortably score on his Sundowns debut.
The Ivorians will be hoping to put up a much better performance when they welcome the South Africans in Abidjan in two weeks’ time.