Sundowns aim to exploit Al Ahly’s not-so-solid defence in the second leg
“I don’t think they are good defensively when they are playing far too deep in their half," said Mngqithi.
Manqoba Mngqithi wasn’t satisfied with the way his team played against Swallows FC. Picture: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix)
Pitso Mosimane would normally say “we’ve seen this movie before” whenever he was faced with some form of adversity at his time as head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns and this time around, his predecessor, Manqoba Mngqithi can sing from the same hymn book after his side fell short in the first-leg of the Caf Champions League quarterfinal.
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As you may already know, Mosimane’s Al Ahly scored two answered goals in Cairo – a result identical to last season’s encounter in the same stage of the competition.
The Red Devils would go on to hold Sundowns to a 1-1 draw in Pretoria, and a similar result this coming weekend would spell the end of Masandawana’s journey in the competition, at the hands of Al Ahly, again.
However, Mngqithi has warned his predecessor, saying if he deploys the same tactics as in the first-leg, the defending champions will be in for a shock.
“The bigger issue is how they approach the game in Pretoria because they will never last very long if they play with the same intensity they played in Egypt, they will be forced to play a counter-attacking game.
“I don’t think they are good defensively when they are playing far too deep in their half, which is what made us play better in the second half. They did not press us from the top, they retreated and that gave us more latitude to get behind their midfield and also to play between the lines,” said Mngqithi.
The reason why the Egyptian giants managed to get the better of Bafana Ba Style is because “Jingles” had all the intel on his former team, which would make it easier to nullify some of Sundowns’ key players.
“It is true, he knows Sundowns well, he knows the field (Loftus Versfeld) but it is an altitude issue. I’ve never seen a team going to Egypt to dominate Al Ahly and to see them playing a counter-attacking football at home was interesting but that was the first-half, the second half is in Pretoria.
“In terms of the ball possession and what could happen in the second-leg, I will give Sundowns 60% and Al Ahly 40%. We are a team that is capable of scoring a lot of goals. I’ve got a lot of respect for Al Ahly, they have got a lot of talented players, they showed their quality and they were very clinical but I still believe we are a better team football wise but we lost the match.”
