MAMELODI Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi says his side will capitalise on the weaknesses of Mbabane Swallows when the two sides clash in the first leg of the second round CAF Champions League match at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium tonight at 8pm.
The Premiership champions will be out to correct their penultimate round knock-out after a 2-0 aggregate loss at the hands of Moroccan giants Esperance last season, when they face the champions of the Eswatini Premier League.
Following their triumph in 2016, Masandawana have not managed to achieve the same consistency and application in Champions League football. They have failed to reach the final since then, despite winning the league consecutively for the past seven seasons.
With the quality of the Premier Soccer League (PSL), and boasting abundance of talent and depth in their squad, the expectation heading into the clash will be for the Chloorkop-based side to kick-start their campaign in fine style.
Mngqithi though, has warned against complacency from his side with Swallows not expected to die wondering.
“If we can’t match their energy, intensity and hunger we will not win the match,” said Mngqithi at a pre-match press conference.
“We have been on this road before, we have played against Chicken Inn at this stage of the competition and they gave us a hard time. When you are playing the Champions League, you have to try and respect your opponents.
“The opposition possess three elements that are very dangerous; they are a team that is very good on set-pieces; their delivery into the near post is unbelievable; and so is their aggression to attack the ball.
“Normally when you play SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) teams you would expect that physically they are not as big as Swallows players are. They have wingers that are tall, their strikers are tall and very quick. So when you have a team with such tall players, already it shows they are a team that pays a lot of attention to set-pieces and they are doing very well in that space.
“The other big factor is the transitional speed from defence to attack; if your defence is not good, they can always punish you.”
The Sundowns mentor does not expect the encounter to be easy but there will be an expectation for the quality of his side to come through and take advantage of every opportunity offered by the visitors.
“Their delivery into the near post is unbelievable, however they do have some areas of weaknesses that we can capitalise on; they are a team that play in groups and are not compact,” he continued.
“They have a defensive five and an offensive five, and that opens them up a little bit sometimes. That is caused by their mentality to play the long ball to the strikers so that they can play from the second ball and that stretches their team a little bit. They might not be as adventurous and aggressive, but we are playing against a decent team.”
Elsewhere, Sekhukhune United will head into their clash against CD Lunda Sul in the first leg of their group stage play-off without their head coach, Lehlohonolo Seema, who has been invited for a CAF A License refresher course in Lesotho.
The match is set to kick-off at 4pm at the Estadio 11 de Novembro, in Talatona, Angola.