Rulani Mokwena says 'Champions League is a different monster'

Mamelodi Sundowns players will call on their vast continental experience for their back-to-back Caf Champions League group-stage matches against Al-Merreikh of Sudan and Al Ahly of Egypt.

The Brazilians, who have set up base in Egypt for the matches, take on Al-Merreikh at the Al Salam in Cairo on Friday and the Pitso Mosimane-coached Al Ahly next week.

“It is difficult but we have to soldier on. The good thing is that players have a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with these conditions,” said Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena.

“Everything so far has gone according to plan, we are in a very good space and looking forward to what should be an interesting match. Our training session on Wednesday was good and our focus was more on acclimatisation.

“When you speak about acclimatisation, you speak about changing gears because we came from Polokwane where we played against Baroka on Monday.

“From that match,  we were not 100% happy with either the result or the performance but you have to change gears and be in the right space mentally for the Champions League.

“Some of the contents of our training session was on the psychological shift from the PSL. In the PSL, you get possibilities to win the league because you are consistently the best team with the best players over 60 matches.

“Sometimes you can do that and win matches with a bit of luck but the Champions League is a different monster, particularly in the group stages because you need to be close to perfection and at optimal level of performance.

“It is only six matches to get to the knockout stages, and we have a clear understanding that this is where the tournament actually kicks off.”

Looking ahead, Mokwena said Al-Merreikh are very experienced at this level and his team must be properly prepared.

“Both teams are very experienced in this space because we are consistent participants in the group stages of the Champions League. At Sundowns, it doesn’t make any difference whether you are at home or away. What is important for us is that we must bring out our best performance and once we can do that we know we can deal with a lot of things on the pitch.”

Mokwena said they have managed to get footage of Al-Merreikh and will plan accordingly.

“The Sudanese league has had a lot of disruptions because of political events in the country and the safety of the teams is difficult to guarantee.

“That moved their venue to Egypt and that made it difficult to get updated match footage from them. The good thing is that not a lot has changed and we have gone back to the last four games.

“We went to those games and the same profile is evident in the team — 4-3-3 with a single pivot. They have two experienced centre halves.”