A point against Wydad will do, says Pitso
A huge part of Pitso Mosimane’s formula to advance to the knockout stages of the Caf Champions League involves taking maximum, or as many as possible, points from rivals Wydad Casablanca who they face tonight in Morocco.
Head coach Pitso Mosimane and Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach Manqoba Mngqithi during the CAF Champions League match between Mamelodi Sundowns and AS Otoho d’Oyo at Lucas Moripe Stadium. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
Sundowns have never beat the North Africans in four visits and “Jingles” says if they manage to stop Wydad from getting all three points tonight they would have done themselves a huge favour.
“They are the team to beat here. If we win away we would have done a huge job. We have beaten them in Atteridgeville not as many times as we want, we have only beaten them once. The monkey is on our back with this one but we do not have to be emotional about it and know that it is a group stage game. Of course if win it gives us six points and it leave them with one point and it will be a very big gap. I still believe that they are the ones who will qualify in the group among the two which I believe the other is ourselves,” said Mosimane.
“This is not a game of many chances, it is a game of small margins and when we have a chance we must take it because it might be the only one. But in football we all have missed clear chances and I hope we don’t miss those chances and I hope that we score goals that were not really opportunities like the goal that we scored against Petro de Luanda from the corner kick, that was not really a chance but those ones really work and if we can get something like that we will be happy,” Mosimane added.
Downs are sitting at the top of Group C but Mosimane is not reading much into it as it is still very early days.
“You can be on top of the group after match-day one but after match-day four you can be at the bottom of the group so it does not mean much. Yes we appreciate the lead and appreciate that we are the only team in the group that got full points more than anybody. That does not mean a lot. It is like when the league starts ad after two games you have got six points then you start going around like it is a big lead but it is not.”
“We need to manage the log properly, the more we have Wydad on less points, the better. If we can get maximum points against Wydad it will help us because they are going to come back and beat the next two teams that are coming here.”
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