Pitso confident of overturning deficit against Al Ahly
Sundowns lost the first leg of their quarterfinal 2-0 in Cairo on Saturday night, leaving them a tough task back home in Tshwane.
Pitso Mosimane, coach of Mamelodi Sundowns (Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix)
Pitso Mosimane remains confident his side can still stage a remarkable turnaround and knock Egyptian giants Al-Ahly out of the Caf Champions League for the second year in a row.
READ: Al Ahly stun Sundowns
Sundowns lost the first leg of their quarterfinal 2-0 in Cairo on Saturday night, leaving them a tough task back home in Tshwane, but “Jingles” insists that all is not lost, and the Red Devils will need little reminding that the last time they were at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, in last year’s quarterfinal, first leg, they lost 5-0.
“Last season when we needed one goal against Wydad Casablanca [in the semifinals], we did not get it.
“Sometimes we score three goals and sometimes we can get more. We scored 11 goals in one game (Sundowns beat Cote D’Or 11-1 at home in the qualifying rounds), so we can score two goals,” That is how Mosimane put it when the Egyptian media asked if he thought his Bafana Ba Style team can score enough goals to advance to the semifinals.
“Come to Pretoria, it is a different story,” he told the reporters, “It is not what you see here (Egypt). Ask USM Algers and Wydad [they will tell you] it’s a totally different game and I can’t explain it.”
However, Mosimane is under no illusions it won’t be easy to put a couple of goals past Al-Ahly, who are unbeaten in the Egyptian Premier League and have conceded just three goals all season – the exact number of goals Sundowns will need to score, while keeping a clean-sheet to advance to the last four.
“Two goals are a bit difficult to turn the results around but we have to turn the volume up in Pretoria, we don’t have an option, we have to score. We need to keep calm and respect the game,” said Mosimane.
He added: “If you ask the coach (René Weiler) if he thought he would score two goals in Egypt, of course he was going to say yes, it is normal because if he said he was not going to be able to score two goals at home, the Al-Ahly people would never have been happy with him.
“It is the same, if I say I can’t score the two goals, then I lose my job. So I am going to say we can score them.”
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