Sundowns coach breaks silence on Pirates’ CAFCL run
Both Mamelodi Sundowns FC and Orlando Pirates FC will be competing in this year’s CAF Champions League edition!
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has heaped praise on Orlando Pirates following their CAF Champions League qualification.
The Buccaneers return to the group stages of Africa’s premier club competition for the first time since 2018.
This comes after Jose Riveiro’s side eased past Jwaneng Galaxy in the final qualification round thanks to a 3-0 on aggregate victory.
Orlando Pirates will be joined by South Africans Mamelodi Sundowns, a regular in the CAF Champions League.
And now, Downs head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has opened up on the Buccaneers’ triumph. Take a look at what he had to say below.
Sundowns coach happy to see Orlando Pirates in group stages
“I must congratulate Orlando Pirates first. It’s very good for a team like Pirates to be in the group stages, and for South Africa to have two teams in the Champions League group stages,” Mngqithi said as quoted by IDiski Times.
“That’s when you start to maximise the chances of a South African team winning the Champions League and it will be nice if both teams could go to the next round which is quarter-finals.
“Once we are there anything is possible and it will nice if we don’t win it and it is won by Pirates or if Pirates does not win, we win it just like Zamalek SC has been doing with Al Ahly for the longest time in Champions League, so it would be nice to get ourselves to that level.”
In other news, Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi believes there’s no room for excuses at Chloorkop.
No room for excuses says Manqoba
“The truth is depth and quality. That is number one and number two.I think it’s the club’s culture of working very hard. We’re given everything that we’re supposed to get and all the details about every single team that we play,” the Mamelodi Sundowns mentor told Citizen.
“If you look at the matches we’ve played even against Stellenbosch FC who were a hard nut to crack. If you look at the amount of chances that we created, maybe the bigger issue is why are we not converting our chances? That should be our main objective for training sessions because you are not scoring enough.
“We don’t have room for excuses. We have everything that we want. So when you have everything that you asked for as a coach, the only thing that you have to make sure of is to try and fight to win games. We’ll also try and fight to create more scoring opportunities.”
How far will Sundowns and Pirates go in the CAFCL?
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