By Michael Madyira
After a difficult few weeks of poor performances, Mamelodi Sundowns will be keen to spark a revival in their game when they face Esperance at 9pm on Saturday.
The Brazilians clash with the Blood and Gold in a CAF Champions League semi-final, first-leg match at Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi in Tunisia.
They arrived in Rades after weeks of not being recognised as their usual impressive selves after grindingly poor results.
Recent performances have painted a picture of Masandawana as lacking in confidence and risk-taking, especially after reaching this more demanding stage of the Champions League.
Sundowns utility star Thapelo Morena talked tactics as he detailed how they are plotting against Esperance.
“The first few minutes they are going to come at us guns blazing because they are playing at home,” Morena told Sundowns’ media department.
“They will go mostly on the sides as that’s how they play. We saw that when we played Tunisia at the Afcon [where Bafana beat the national team who had some Esperance players].
“The most important thing for us is to try and close the sides and force them inside, where we have numbers.”
Sundowns and Esperance last met in 2017 in the group stage of the same competition with the Tunisians winning 2-1 in Pretoria while the other match ended 0-0 in the North African country.
Blood and Gold defender Yassine Meriah has stressed the importance of taking a healthy lead ahead of next week’s second leg in Tshwane.
“Esperance will play the match realistically and will try to decide in the first leg to move to South Africa with high morale,” Meriah told Radio Mosaique as per Kooora.
“Esperance players are not thinking about the 2025 Club World Cup and the focus is only on facing Sundowns and reaching the CAF Champions League final.”
What could give Sundowns confidence is the fact that Esperance also stuttered into the semi-finals.
Just like Sundowns, the Tunisians sneaked into the last four via a penalty shootout following a 0-0 aggregate draw with Asec Mimosas.
Pictured above: Mamelodi Sundowns players.
Image source: Mamelodi Sundowns
